debug-mode

A runtime debugging workflow that adds temporary log probes to code, collects execution data, and uses it to find bugs.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to plan and insert diagnostic logs, inspect runtime traces, identify a root cause from collected evidence, verify a fix, and remove the temporary probes.
Why use it?
It helps explain bugs whose cause is unclear, including timing problems, race conditions, memory leaks, performance issues, and regressions.

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/lifedever/skills-plugin/debug-mode
Any agent
npx skills add lifedever/skills-plugin --skill debug-mode
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/lifedever/skills-plugin

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 104 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 3,672 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan C 2 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 $0.00104 $0.03672
Opus 5 $0.00052 $0.01836
Sonnet 5 $0.00021 $0.00734
Haiku 4.5 $0.00010 $0.00367

Measured 2d ago against content hash 65663a41e2dc, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade C, and why

debug-mode scanned grade C with 2 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 2d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 1 executable file (scripts/debug-server.js), 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.

Recursive force deletehighDestructive command

rm -rf with a variable or a broad path is one typo away from removing the wrong tree.

rm -rf .claude-debug/

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

curl -s http://localhost:3333/health
skills/debug-mode/SKILL.md · 356 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 356 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Debug Mode — Runtime Debugging

Locate and fix bugs by inserting log probes, collecting runtime data, and analyzing execution traces. Multi-language support.

⛔ MANDATORY RULES — ENFORCED VIA CHECKPOINTS

This skill uses a checkpoint system. You MUST print each checkpoint marker BEFORE proceeding to the next step. If you skip a checkpoint, the entire debug session is invalid.

Each step ends with a checkpoint that you must print exactly:

  • ✅ CHECKPOINT 1: Probe plan created — N probes planned
  • ✅ CHECKPOINT 2: Log collector started
  • ✅ CHECKPOINT 3: N probes inserted into source files (you must have used the Edit tool N times)
  • ✅ CHECKPOINT 4: N log entries collected
  • ✅ CHECKPOINT 5: Root cause identified with log evidence
  • ✅ CHECKPOINT 6: Fix applied and verified with probes
  • ✅ CHECKPOINT 7: All probes removed, cleanup complete

HARD RULES:

  1. You CANNOT print CHECKPOINT 5 without first printing CHECKPOINTS 1-4
  2. You CANNOT propose a fix without citing specific log entries as evidence
  3. You MUST use the Edit tool to physically insert probe code into source files at Step 3 — reading code and proposing probes mentally does not count
  4. You MUST collect and read actual log output at Step 5 — you cannot analyze logs you haven't collected
  5. Static analysis may reveal an obvious issue — you may fix it first. But if the fix doesn't work, you MUST instrument and collect runtime data before attempting another fix. The purpose is runtime verification, not guesswork.

Core Principles

  1. Understand before instrumenting — Read code and error messages, identify suspect areas, place probes only on critical paths
  2. Minimal intrusion — Probes must not alter original logic, only observe and record
  3. Closed loop — Instrument → Run → Collect → Analyze → Fix → Verify → Clean up

Workflow

Step 0: Triage — Gather Context from User

Before reading any code, ask the user targeted questions to collect clues. Only ask what you don't already know — skip questions the user has already answered in their initial message.

Read the full file on GitHub · 356 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file 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. 2d ago First seen · 356 lines · 104 tokens per session scan C 65663a41e2dc

Subscribe to this mod's changes

debug-mode is a skill published in the GitHub repository lifedever/skills-plugin (11 stars, last pushed 11d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 104 tokens to every session and 3,672 once invoked, about $0.0005 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it C with 2 findings (recursive force delete, makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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