systematic-debugging

A four-phase method for finding the underlying cause of technical problems before changing code or configuration. It covers issues such as bugs, failed tests, browser errors, API failures, and deployment problems.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to investigate software bugs, test and build failures, API or authentication errors, browser problems, infrastructure issues, and unusual data.
Why use it?
It reduces guesswork and avoids quick fixes that hide the real problem or create new ones. The process starts with reading the full error, reproducing the issue, and gathering evidence.

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/ssube/conclave/systematic-debugging
Any agent
npx skills add ssube/conclave --skill systematic-debugging
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ssube/conclave

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 55 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,127 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. 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 $0.00055 $0.01127
Opus 5 $0.00028 $0.00563
Sonnet 5 $0.00011 $0.00225
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00113

Measured yesterday against content hash d3e72a23efef, 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 1 finding 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 yesterday.

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.

Makes network callslowCapability

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

| API 401/403 | Token expired or revoked | Check env var, try manual curl |
pi/skills/systematic-debugging/SKILL.md · 133 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 133 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Systematic Debugging

Random fixes waste time and create new bugs. Quick patches mask underlying issues.

Iron Law: NO FIXES WITHOUT ROOT CAUSE INVESTIGATION FIRST.

Adapted from obra/superpowers.

When to Use

Use for ANY technical issue:

  • Playwright posting failures (session expired, element not found)
  • API errors (rate limits, auth failures, unexpected responses)
  • ComfyUI generation failures (model not found, OOM, workflow errors)
  • Infrastructure issues (ChromaDB down, SQLite locked, disk full)
  • Build/deploy failures (Hugo, Cloudflare)
  • Data anomalies (metrics that don't make sense)

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

The Four Phases

Complete each phase before proceeding to the next.

Phase 1: Root Cause Investigation

BEFORE attempting ANY fix:

  1. Read error messages carefully

    • Full stack traces, not just the last line
    • Error codes, HTTP status codes
    • File paths and line numbers
    • Don't skip warnings
  2. Reproduce consistently

    • Can you trigger it reliably?
    • Same error every time, or intermittent?
    • If intermittent → gather more data, don't guess
  3. Check recent changes

    • git log --oneline -10
    • Were env vars changed? Sessions rotated? APIs updated?
    • Did a platform deploy an update? (Search web if suspected)
  4. Trace the data flow (for multi-component systems)

    For EACH component boundary:
      - Log what enters the component
      - Log what exits the component
      - Verify environment/config at each layer
    

    Example: Playwright posting → Session cookie → HTTP request → Platform API Which layer fails?

Phase 2: Pattern Analysis

  1. Find working examples — Same skill worked yesterday? Different platform works?
  2. Compare — What's different between working and broken state?
  3. Check dependencies — Platform API changed? Cookie format different? Rate limit hit?
  4. Read the source — Don't guess what a script does. Read it.

Read the full file on GitHub · 133 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. yesterday First seen · 133 lines · 55 tokens per session scan A d3e72a23efef

Subscribe to this mod's changes

systematic-debugging is a skill published in the GitHub repository ssube/conclave (2 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 55 tokens to every session and 1,127 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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