debug-trace

debug-trace is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from JakubMikolajek/codex-skills-collection. It costs 36 tokens per session (1,279 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A structured process for finding the underlying cause of a bug, error, crash, or unexpected result before changing code.

In plain words
What is it for?
It helps reproduce failures, narrow down their cause, document evidence, and guide a fix for failing tests, crashes, regressions, or differences between environments.
Why use it?
It prevents fixes that only hide the visible symptom while leaving the real problem in place. The process requires a written debugging analysis before implementation begins.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit It helps reproduce failures, narrow down their cause, document evidence, and guide a fix for failing tests, crashes, regressions, or differences between environments.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/jakubmikolajek/codex-skills-collection/debug-trace
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.

Any agent
npx skills add JakubMikolajek/codex-skills-collection --skill debug-trace
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/JakubMikolajek/codex-skills-collection

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 debug-trace

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jakubmikolajek/codex-skills-collection/debug-trace/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/jakubmikolajek/codex-skills-collection/debug-trace)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jakubmikolajek/codex-skills-collection/debug-trace"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jakubmikolajek/codex-skills-collection/debug-trace/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.

agentmods 80×15 button for debug-trace

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jakubmikolajek/codex-skills-collection/debug-trace"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jakubmikolajek/codex-skills-collection/debug-trace.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 36 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,279 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
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 5.1 $0.00036 $0.01279
Opus 5 $0.00018 $0.00639
Sonnet 5 $0.00007 $0.00256
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00128

Measured 9d ago against content hash 26ddcad4060e, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

debug-trace 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 9d 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.

skills/debug-trace/SKILL.md · 142 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 142 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Debug Trace

This skill enforces structured root cause analysis before any fix is written. It prevents surface-level patches by requiring a complete Debug Report before code changes. No fix without a trace.

When to Use

  • Task contains: "bug", "error", "fix", "broken", "not working", "failing", "crash", "exception", "wrong output"
  • A test is failing and the cause is not immediately obvious
  • A previous fix did not resolve the issue (regression or misdiagnosis)
  • Behavior differs between environments (local vs CI, iOS vs Android, dev vs prod)

When NOT to Use

  • Task is planned feature implementation with no existing bug
  • Task is a refactor where the current behavior is correct but the code needs restructuring
  • User explicitly provides the root cause and only needs help writing the fix

Core Principles

No Fix Without a Debug Report

This is non-negotiable. Writing code before completing analysis produces patches, not fixes. The Debug Report must be completed before any fix code is written.

Mandatory Pre-Fix Analysis

Follow these steps in order. Do not skip steps.

Step 1 — Reproduce

Confirm the exact condition that triggers the bug: input, state, environment, user action sequence. If it cannot be reproduced, do not proceed to Step 2 — see "Cannot Reproduce" below.

Construct the tightest feedback loop available, in this order:

  1. Failing test at the right seam
  2. HTTP script against a running dev server
  3. CLI invocation with a fixture, diffing output
  4. Headless browser automation
  5. Captured trace replay
  6. Minimal harness
  7. Property/fuzz loop with many random inputs
  8. Bisection harness between known-good and known-bad states
  9. Differential testing of old versus new behavior
  10. Human-in-the-loop bash script — last resort only

Target a deterministic loop under 2 seconds; for flaky bugs, target a 50%+ reproduction rate before Step 2.

Step 2 — Isolate

Identify the smallest code unit responsible: function, component, query, middleware. Narrow by removing surrounding code mentally or via test.

Read the full file on GitHub · 142 lines

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. 9d ago First seen · 142 lines · 36 tokens per session scan A 26ddcad4060e

Subscribe to this mod's changes

debug-trace is a skill published in the GitHub repository JakubMikolajek/codex-skills-collection (5 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 36 tokens to every session and 1,279 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 2026-08-31.

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