investigate

Investigate bugs and code areas with evidence-graded findings recorded in a structured case file.

3|Updated Feb 26, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/stellar-zk/stellar-zk --skill investigate-stellar-zk
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: investigate
Source: https://github.com/stellar-zk/stellar-zk/tree/main/.claude/skills/investigate
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/stellar-zk/stellar-zk --skill investigate-stellar-zk

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill includes references (resource) components.

What problem does it solve? Debugging and incident analysis often rely on guesswork, lost context, and unverified assumptions. This Skill enforces a disciplined forensic workflow that reconstructs what happened from available evidence, grades every finding as Confirmed, Deduced, or Hypothesized, and persists everything in a structured case file another engineer can pick up cold. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Evidence-graded investigation: Anchors analysis in a Confirmed stronghold, traces causality backward from symptoms, and requires refutation passes before confirming hypotheses. - Persistent case file: Initializes a Markdown case file from a template with sections for evidence inventory, timeline, hypotheses, source code trace, and a final conclusion with confidence level. - Resumable sessions: Reopens an existing case file, surfaces open hypotheses and backlog items, and appends follow-up blocks for continued investigation. - Use Case: A user reports a failing Soroban contract verification. The Skill records the error as a stronghold, maps logs and recent commits in parallel, traces the caller chain to the root cause, and delivers a case file with a High-confidence conclusion and fix direction. ## Quick Start Ask the agent to investigate the error in your log file or trace what caused a failing test, and it will open a case file and begin evidence collection.

Frequently Asked Questions about investigate

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I investigate a bug with a structured workflow?▼

Provide a ticket ID, log file, error message, or problem description. The Skill anchors on one Confirmed piece of evidence, maps the evidence perimeter, tests hypotheses with refutation passes, and records everything in a case file with a confidence-graded conclusion.

How do I build a mental model of unfamiliar code?▼

Name the code area without any symptom. The Skill runs the same evidence discipline in exploration mode: I/O mapping, frequent-terms scans, and control-flow analysis, producing an area model with triggers, outputs, and dependencies.

Can I resume a previous investigation session?▼

Yes. Pass the path to an existing case file and the Skill reloads it, surfaces open hypotheses, backlog items, and missing evidence, then appends new work under a dated Follow-up block.

Does the investigation skill fix the bugs it finds?▼

No. It stops at the diagnosis and provides a fix direction, reproduction plan, and next-step recommendations such as a dev-story or code review. Implementation is explicitly out of scope.

What happens when there is not enough evidence to investigate?▼

The Skill marks the case evidence-light, builds a prioritized data-collection backlog, and documents what evidence is missing, what it would resolve, and how to obtain it before proceeding.