What problem does it solve? When facing bugs, test failures, or unexpected behavior, the temptation to apply quick symptom fixes leads to thrashing, recurring issues, and wasted hours. This Skill enforces a disciplined investigation process that finds the actual root cause before any fix is attempted. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Four-Phase Process: Root cause investigation, pattern analysis, hypothesis testing, and verified implementation, with mandatory completion of each phase before proceeding. - Supporting Techniques: Includes root-cause tracing through call stacks, defense-in-depth validation across layers, condition-based waiting to replace flaky timeouts, and a bisection script to find test polluters. - Pressure Resistance: Explicit red flags, rationalization tables, and architectural escalation rules (question the design after 3 failed fixes) keep the process intact under time pressure. - Use Case: A test fails intermittently in CI. Instead of adding arbitrary sleeps, you trace the data flow backward, find the original trigger, fix it at the source, and add validation at each layer so the bug becomes structurally impossible. ## Quick Start Use the systematic-debugging skill to investigate this failing test and find its root cause before suggesting any fix.
