systematic-debugging

systematic-debugging is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from J-Pster/Psters_AI_Workflow. It costs 31 tokens per session (346 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A step-by-step method for finding the real cause of bugs, failing tests, and unexpected software behavior before changing code. It uses reproduction, comparison with working code, focused hypothesis tests, and verification.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to investigate errors, failing tests, broken features, timing problems, and regressions, then apply and verify a minimal fix.
Why use it?
It reduces guesswork and prevents repeated fixes that do not address the underlying problem. It also requires checking that a reported fix actually works.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

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.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/j-pster/psters_ai_workflow/systematic-debugging
Any agent
npx skills add J-Pster/Psters_AI_Workflow --skill systematic-debugging
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/J-Pster/Psters_AI_Workflow

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote 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.

agentmods badge for systematic-debugging

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/j-pster/psters_ai_workflow/systematic-debugging.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/j-pster/psters_ai_workflow/systematic-debugging)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/j-pster/psters_ai_workflow/systematic-debugging"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/j-pster/psters_ai_workflow/systematic-debugging.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 31 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 346 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

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.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00031 $0.00346
Opus 5 $0.00015 $0.00173
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00069
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00035

Measured 4d ago against content hash ec3e71da7813, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

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 4d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 1 executable file (find-polluter.sh), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

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.

plugins/psters-ai-workflow/skills/systematic-debugging/SKILL.md · 53 lines

What it actually says

Systematic Debugging

Do not jump to fixes. Find root cause first.

4-phase process

1) Root-cause investigation

  • Reproduce issue with explicit steps.
  • Read errors/stack traces fully.
  • Check recent changes likely to affect behavior.
  • Gather targeted evidence at component boundaries.

2) Pattern identification

  • Find similar working code/path.
  • Compare working vs failing flow.
  • List concrete differences.

3) Hypothesis test

  • Form one hypothesis at a time.
  • Apply the smallest possible change to test it.
  • Validate hypothesis before moving to additional changes.

4) Minimal fix + validation

  • Implement only the root-cause fix.
  • Re-run reproduction and verification commands.
  • Confirm no collateral regressions in affected scope.

Guardrails

  • If 2+ blind fixes already failed, restart at Phase 1.
  • If 3+ attempts fail, escalate: question architecture/pattern choice.
  • Never report success without applying verification-before-completion.

Supporting techniques (use when applicable)

  • root-cause-tracing.md for deep stack tracing.
  • condition-based-waiting.md for async/timing issues.
  • defense-in-depth.md for post-fix boundary hardening.
  • find-polluter.sh when isolated test passes but suite fails.

In this workflow

  • Trigger automatically for /pwf-work and /pwf-work-plan when the task is bug/debug/failure oriented.
Files

What ships with it

4 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

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.

  1. 4d ago First seen · 53 lines · 31 tokens per session scan A ec3e71da7813

Subscribe to this mod's changes

systematic-debugging is a skill published in the GitHub repository J-Pster/Psters_AI_Workflow (290 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 31 tokens to every session and 346 once invoked, about $0.0002 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 2026-08-30.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

html-ppt-hermes-cyber-terminal

OpenDesign + BYOK: choosing and wiring your own model, hands-on — cost, quality, and the routing decision. Built as a decision-grade AI literacy deck for engineers, IT, applied-AI teams.

nexu-io/open-design · 53 tokens

development

开发语言能力索引。Python、Go、Rust、TypeScript、Java、C++、Shell。当用户提到编程、开发、代码、语言时路由到此。.

fengshao1227/ccg-workflow · 41 tokens

post-build-flow

Handles workflow verification and setup after build-workflow succeeds, or when the message contains workflow-verification-follow-up or workflow-setup-required. Load after direct builds, when verificationReadiness requires action, or on orchestrator verify/setup follow-up turns.

n8n-io/n8n · 53 tokens

n8n:human-like-code-review

Reviews a GitHub pull request like a thoughtful human reviewer and writes the feedback to a markdown file. Prioritizes context, architecture fit, solution complexity, bugs, security edge cases, and missing tests. Use when given a PR URL to review, or when the user says /human-like-code-review.

n8n-io/n8n · 70 tokens

n8n:create-pr

Creates GitHub pull requests with properly formatted titles that pass the check-pr-title CI validation. Use when creating PRs, submitting changes for review, or when the user says /pr or asks to create a pull request.

n8n-io/n8n · 50 tokens

flow-next-resolve-pr

Resolve PR review feedback. Fetches unresolved threads, triages, fixes, replies and resolves via GraphQL. Use when asked to address review comments.

gmickel/flow-next · 36 tokens