Getting it into your agent
One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.
npx skills add boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit --skill systematic-debugginggit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/boparaiamrit/skills-by-amritWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit/systematic-debugging)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit/systematic-debugging"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit/systematic-debugging/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit/systematic-debugging"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit/systematic-debugging.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00051 | $0.01901 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00026 | $0.00950 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00010 | $0.00380 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00005 | $0.00190 |
Grade A, and why
systematic-debugging scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 8d ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 228 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Systematic Debugging
Overview
Random fixes waste time and create new bugs. Quick patches mask underlying issues.
Core principle: ALWAYS find root cause before attempting fixes. Symptom fixes are failure.
Violating the letter of this process is violating the spirit of debugging.
The Iron Law
NO FIXES WITHOUT ROOT CAUSE INVESTIGATION FIRST
If you haven't completed Phase 1, you cannot propose fixes.
When to Use
Use for ANY technical issue:
- Test failures
- Bugs in production
- Unexpected behavior
- Performance problems
- Build failures
- Integration issues
Use ESPECIALLY when:
- Under time pressure (emergencies make guessing tempting)
- "Just one quick fix" seems obvious
- You've already tried multiple fixes
- Previous fix didn't work
- You don't fully understand the issue
Don't skip when:
- Issue seems simple (simple bugs have root causes too)
- You're in a hurry (systematic is faster than thrashing)
- Someone wants it fixed NOW (rework costs more than investigation)
When NOT to Use
- Production outage where mitigation is needed first (use
incident-response— restore service, then debug) - Design-time decisions (use
brainstorming) - Code quality improvements with no bug (use
refactoring-safely)
Anti-Shortcut Rules
YOU CANNOT:
- Apply a fix before stating the root cause — "I think this will fix it" is not debugging
- Say "I found the issue" without reproduction evidence — reproduce first, always
- Skip isolation — "it's probably in this file" is a guess, not a diagnosis
- Apply multiple changes at once — change ONE thing, test, observe
- Accept "it works now" without understanding why — accidental fixes reoccur
- Trust error messages at face value — the symptom is NOT the cause
- Debug by reading code alone when you can run it — runtime truth > static analysis
- Move on after the fix without checking for the same pattern elsewhere
Common Rationalizations
| Excuse | Reality |
|---|---|
| "I know what's wrong" | If you knew, it wouldn't be a bug |
| "Let me just try this" | Trying without understanding is guessing |
| "It's faster to just fix it" | You've said that about the last 3 attempts |
| "It's an obvious fix" | Then the root cause analysis will be quick |
| "We need this fixed now" | Rework takes longer than investigation |
| "It's a simple bug" | Simple bugs have simple root causes. Find them |
| "The error message says..." | Error messages describe symptoms, not causes |
| "It worked on my machine" | That's a clue, not a conclusion. Investigate the difference |
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 8d ago First seen · 228 lines · 51 tokens per session scan A 54467839716e
systematic-debugging is a skill published in the GitHub repository boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit (5 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 51 tokens to every session and 1,901 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-03.
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