systematic-debug

systematic-debug is a skill for Claude Code from xbklairith/kisune. It costs 56 tokens per session (1,738 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A step-by-step method for investigating software problems. It starts by reproducing the issue, tracing where it fails, testing whether the suspected cause is wrong, and comparing related clues.

In plain words
What is it for?
It is for diagnosing bugs, flaky tests, unknown failures, and cross-component issues.
Why use it?
It helps avoid guessing when dealing with bugs, unreliable tests, unfamiliar failures, or problems spanning several parts of a project.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter.

Part of the dev-workflow plugin — 28 skills, 1 command, 8 agents, 1 hook, 1 plugin shipped together

Good fit It is for diagnosing bugs, flaky tests, unknown failures, and cross-component issues.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/xbklairith/kisune/systematic-debug
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 xbklairith/kisune --skill systematic-debug
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/xbklairith/kisune

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install dev-workflow, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 28 skills, 1 command, 8 agents, 1 hook, 1 plugin.

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-debug

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

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/xbklairith/kisune/systematic-debug"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/xbklairith/kisune/systematic-debug.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 56 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,738 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. 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 $0.00056 $0.01738
Opus 5.5 $0.00022 $0.00695
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00011 $0.00348
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00174

Measured 8d ago against content hash aeebae8aa15c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

systematic-debug 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 8d 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.

Makes network callslowCapability

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

- **Reliable repro** → capture exact steps, inputs, and environment as a runnable artifact: failing test, curl script, CLI invocation, or replay harness.
dev-workflow/skills/systematic-debug/SKILL.md · 162 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 162 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Systematic Debug Skill

Purpose

Resolve bugs methodically using a four-step discipline. The mantra enforces order: no fix before a reliable repro, no hypothesis before the fail path is known, no commitment to a cause before it survives a disproof attempt, no declaration of success before every prior breadcrumb has been checked.


The 4-Mantra Block

Recite this verbatim as the first thing in your first response, every debug session:

Mantra:

  1. First is reproducibility. Can the issue be reproduced reliably?
  2. Know the fail path. Debugger first; then source trace + knob enumeration; then in-code instrumentation.
  3. Question your hypothesis. What would disprove it?
  4. Every run is a breadcrumb. Cross-reference all of them.

Operating rules:

  • Recite once per session, in the first response. Do not re-recite mid-session.
  • Recite verbatim — never paraphrase, shorten, or skip lines.
  • If the user says "skip the mantra" → skip the recital, but apply the four steps silently.
  • The mantra is a constraint you carry — not advice to relay to the user.
  • Do not propose a fix until step 1 is satisfied.
  • Do not start testing hypotheses until step 2 has narrowed the fail path.
  • Do not commit to a hypothesis until step 3 has attempted a disproof.
  • Do not declare success until step 4 has reconciled every prior observation.

Step 1: Reproduce Reliably

Build a runnable repro before anything else.

  • Reliable repro → capture exact steps, inputs, and environment as a runnable artifact: failing test, curl script, CLI invocation, or replay harness.
  • Flaky repro → the bug is not yet debuggable. Raise the rate first: loop the trigger, parallelise, add stress, narrow timing windows, inject sleeps. 50% flake rate is debuggable; 1% is not.
  • No repro at all → stop. Say so explicitly. Ask for env access, captured artifacts (HAR, log dump, core dump), or permission to instrument. Do not proceed to hypothesise.

Target: a fast (1–5 s), deterministic pass/fail signal. Pin time, seed the RNG, freeze network, isolate filesystem when needed.

Read the full file on GitHub · 162 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. 8d ago Changed aeebae8aa15c
  2. 10d ago Changed · -51 lines · -5 tokens per session 399b5740ef96
  3. 1mo ago First seen · 213 lines · 61 tokens per session scan A d03995b3b785

Subscribe to this mod's changes

systematic-debug is a skill published in the GitHub repository xbklairith/kisune (3 stars, last pushed 8d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 56 tokens to every session and 1,738 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5.5. 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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