debugging-workflows

A troubleshooting guide for orchestration workflows, which are automated sequences of AI-agent tasks. It covers syntax errors, missing agents, execution failures, and variables that do not pass correctly.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when a workflow will not start, an agent cannot be found, variables appear literally or are missing, or execution produces an unexpected result.
Why use it?
It connects common error messages to checks and fixes for workflow syntax, agent names, brackets, quotes, and variables.

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/mbruhler/claude-orchestration/debugging-workflows
Any agent
npx skills add mbruhler/claude-orchestration --skill debugging-workflows
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mbruhler/claude-orchestration

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 39 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 926 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 $0.00039 $0.00926
Opus 5 $0.00019 $0.00463
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00185
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00093

Measured 3d ago against content hash 87df54d3ed32, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

debugging-workflows 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 3d 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/debugging-workflows/SKILL.md · 173 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 173 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Debugging Orchestration Workflows

I help diagnose and fix workflow execution issues using systematic debugging techniques.

When I Activate

I activate when you:

  • Experience workflow failures
  • Get syntax errors
  • Have agent execution issues
  • Variables not working as expected
  • Ask "why isn't this working?"

Common Issues

Syntax Errors

Problem: Workflow won't parse

Symptoms:

  • "Unexpected token" errors
  • "Invalid syntax" messages
  • Workflow won't start

Solutions:

  1. Check operator syntax: ->, ||, ~> (not => or &&)
  2. Verify bracket matching: [...]
  3. Check quote matching: "instruction"
  4. Validate agent names (no typos)

Agent Not Found

Problem: Agent reference doesn't resolve

Symptoms:

  • "Agent 'X' not found"
  • Execution stops at agent invocation

Solutions:

  1. Check spelling of agent name
  2. Verify temp agent file exists: temp-agents/agent-name.md
  3. Check defined agent in registry: agents/registry.json
  4. Ensure built-in agent name is correct

Variable Issues

Problem: Variables not passing correctly

Symptoms:

  • {variable} shows as literal text
  • "Variable not found" errors
  • Empty variable values

Solutions:

  1. Verify capture syntax: agent:"task":variable_name
  2. Check interpolation: "Use {variable_name}"
  3. Ensure variable set before use
  4. Check variable name spelling

Parallel Execution Failures

Problem: Parallel tasks failing or hanging

Symptoms:

  • Only some parallel tasks complete
  • Workflow hangs at parallel section
  • Inconsistent results

Solutions:

  1. Ensure tasks are independent (no shared state)
  2. Check syntax: [task1 || task2 || task3]
  3. Verify each task can run standalone
  4. Check for race conditions

Checkpoint Issues

Problem: Checkpoints not triggering

Symptoms:

  • Checkpoints skipped
  • No user prompt shown
  • Workflow continues without pause

Solutions:

  1. Check checkpoint syntax: @checkpoint-name
  2. Verify not in auto-mode
  3. Ensure checkpoint is reachable in flow

Read the full file on GitHub · 173 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. 3d ago First seen · 173 lines · 39 tokens per session scan A 87df54d3ed32

Subscribe to this mod's changes

debugging-workflows is a skill published in the GitHub repository mbruhler/claude-orchestration (218 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 39 tokens to every session and 926 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.

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