Root Cause Tracing

Root Cause Tracing teaches you to follow bugs backward through the call chain rather than patching where errors appear. The skill walks through tracing methodology, stack instrumentation, and defense-in-depth validation to prevent recurrence.

This skill teaches you to trace bugs backward through the call chain rather than fixing where errors appear. By working systematically up the stack—identifying what called each function and what values were passed—you locate the original trigger and fix the root cause. Includes instrumentation techniques, stack trace analysis, and real examples of finding pollution across test suites.

Wiring ensures your infrastructure components are reachable and actually execute when needed. It guides you through verifying entry points, tracing call paths from trigger to execution, testing end-to-end flows, and eliminating orphaned modules—preventing dead code and wasted effort.

Debugging provides structured methodologies across four sub-skills: systematic investigation to isolate root causes, backward tracing through call stacks, layered validation to prevent recurrence, and verification before claiming fixes are complete. Use it when encountering bugs, test failures, or unexpected behavior.

Systematic Debugging enforces a disciplined four-phase process: investigate root cause, analyze patterns, form and test hypotheses, then implement fixes. It stops you from guessing or patching symptoms, ensuring you understand the actual problem before making changes.

This skill enforces a disciplined debugging process: establish a tight feedback loop that reproduces the exact symptom, gather evidence across system boundaries, trace data flow to its source, and form testable hypotheses before proposing any fix. By completing each phase sequentially—root cause investigation, pattern analysis, hypothesis testing, and verification—you eliminate guesswork and prevent quick patches from masking deeper issues.