Skip to content

feat(ce-debug): add systematic debugging skill#543

Merged
tmchow merged 2 commits intomainfrom
tmchow/ce-debug-skill
Apr 10, 2026
Merged

feat(ce-debug): add systematic debugging skill#543
tmchow merged 2 commits intomainfrom
tmchow/ce-debug-skill

Conversation

@tmchow
Copy link
Copy Markdown
Collaborator

@tmchow tmchow commented Apr 10, 2026

Summary

New /ce-debug skill that systematically finds root causes and fixes bugs. Replaces /reproduce-bug, which was limited to GitHub issues and stopped at reproduction without fixing.

ce-debug handles any debugging entry point: stack traces, failing tests, issue tracker references (GitHub, Linear, Jira), or vague symptom descriptions. It traces the full causal chain before proposing a fix, then lets the user choose whether to fix now, share the diagnosis via Proof, or rethink the design via brainstorm.

Fixes #533

What changed

New skill: ce-debug/SKILL.md (191 lines)

  • 5 self-sizing phases: Triage, Investigate, Root Cause, Fix, Close. No complexity tiers. The same phases handle a missing import (fast) and a race condition (deep).
  • Causal chain gate: cannot propose a fix until the full chain from trigger to symptom has no gaps.
  • Predictions for uncertain links: when a causal chain has non-obvious steps, requires a falsifiable prediction in a different code path. Wrong prediction + working fix = symptom fix.
  • Smart escalation: when 2-3 hypotheses fail, diagnoses why (architecture problem, wrong mental model, environment issue, symptom fix) instead of just stopping.
  • Test-first fix phase with workspace safety checks, conditional defense-in-depth, and conditional post-mortem.
  • User chooses next step after diagnosis: fix now, view in Proof, or rethink via brainstorm.

New reference: references/anti-patterns.md (91 lines)

  • Loaded before hypothesis formation to create friction against common debugging shortcuts.
  • Covers: prediction quality (good vs bad examples), shotgun debugging, confirmation bias, "it works now" trap, shortcut signals, smart escalation patterns.

New reference: references/investigation-techniques.md (161 lines)

  • Loaded when deeper investigation is needed (intermittent bugs, framework-specific tracing, browser debugging).
  • Covers: backward root-cause tracing, git bisect, intermittent bug techniques, framework-specific debugging (Rails/Node/Python), race conditions, browser debugging with agent-browser.

Deleted: reproduce-bug/SKILL.md

  • ce-debug covers all reproduce-bug trigger conditions and more. The trigger description includes issue tracker references, stack traces, test paths, and vague descriptions.

Updated: README.md

  • Added ce-debug to Core Workflow table, removed reproduce-bug from Workflow Utilities.

Test plan

  • bun run release:validate passes (42 skills, 51 agents)
  • bun test passes (657 tests, 0 failures)
  • Eval: stack trace entry point correctly traces NPE to upstream silent null return
  • Eval: failing test entry point finds root cause without just making the test pass
  • Eval: vague description + stuck user triggers prior-attempt awareness, identifies root cause upstream from where user suspected
  • Eval: browser/API bug traces 404 from frontend redirect to missing API response field
  • Eval: visual CSS bug drives agent to attempt agent-browser before falling back to code reading

Compound Engineering
Claude Code

…methodology

Replaces reproduce-bug with a broader debugging skill that handles any
entry point (stack traces, failing tests, issue tracker references, vague
descriptions). Core methodology: trace the full causal chain before
proposing a fix, with predictions for uncertain links and smart
escalation when stuck. Optionally implements test-first fixes or hands
off the diagnosis for review/sharing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Copy link
Copy Markdown

@chatgpt-codex-connector chatgpt-codex-connector bot left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

💡 Codex Review

Here are some automated review suggestions for this pull request.

Reviewed commit: f907973c08

ℹ️ About Codex in GitHub

Your team has set up Codex to review pull requests in this repo. Reviews are triggered when you

  • Open a pull request for review
  • Mark a draft as ready
  • Comment "@codex review".

If Codex has suggestions, it will comment; otherwise it will react with 👍.

Codex can also answer questions or update the PR. Try commenting "@codex address that feedback".

Comment thread plugins/compound-engineering/skills/ce-debug/SKILL.md Outdated
…g_description (#543)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
@tmchow tmchow merged commit e38223a into main Apr 10, 2026
2 checks passed
@github-actions github-actions bot mentioned this pull request Apr 10, 2026
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

None yet

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

Which skill should Debug use?

1 participant