Brummel
6410732943
Phase 3 previously said only "smallest possible reproducer" — a passive property an agent can satisfy by name while still asserting against the full reproducing fixture. Sharpen it into an explicit two-step discipline: minimize the trigger (delta-reduce until one more cut makes the symptom vanish) and make the fixture autonomous (inline input, no shared fixtures/DB seeds/clocks/server boots unless the bug is genuinely at that integration boundary). - Iron Law gains: an un-minimized repro is not a RED test - Phase 3 rewritten with explicit Minimize + Autonomous steps - 3 rationalization rows + 4 red flags for the "full fixture reproduces deterministically, ship it" failure mode - SKILL.md overview/handoff mirrored at orchestrator altitude Baseline (writing-skills RED-first): 6 subagent runs showed the old wording usually steered right but relied on agent instinct; GREEN: 2 runs under the targeted full-fixture pressure now reduce to the minimal trigger and cite the contract verbatim. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
100 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
100 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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name: debug
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description: Use when a bug surfaces — failing test, segfault, wrong stdout, panic, or any observable misbehaviour. Bug fixes are RED-first TDD; no fix is attempted before the failing test exists in the working tree. Mandatory for any bug, including ones that look trivial.
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---
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# debug — RED-first bug diagnoser
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> **Violating the letter of these rules is violating the spirit.**
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## Overview
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Bugs are diagnosed and fixed by a two-stage handoff: this
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skill produces the RED test and the cause analysis; the
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`implement` skill then drives the fix to GREEN. Skipping the
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RED stage — even for "trivial" bugs — produces fixes that don't
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stick and tests that don't exist to catch the next regression.
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The substantive process — root cause investigation → pattern
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analysis → minimal, autonomous RED test → handoff, plus the
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Phase 4.5 architecture-question trigger after three failed
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hypotheses — lives in `agents/debugger.md`. The RED stage is
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not "any failing test": Phase 3 reduces the reproducer to the
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smallest autonomous trigger before the test counts. That file is the single source of truth
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for the discipline; this skill file only governs trigger,
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dispatch, and handoff.
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## When to Use / Skipping
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Trigger this skill on:
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- a failing run of the project's test command (configured under
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`commands.test` in the profile)
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- wrong stdout from running a project artefact
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- a segfault from a built binary
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- a panic / unhandled exception in the toolchain
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- a structured diagnostic from `bencher` or `architect` that
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names a concrete misbehaviour
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**Never skipped.** A bug without a regression test is a code
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change, not a fix. Ad-hoc judgement that a bug is "too small
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for TDD" is the exact failure mode this skill exists to prevent.
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## The Iron Law
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```
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NO FIXES WITHOUT ROOT CAUSE INVESTIGATION FIRST
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NO FIX WITHOUT A FAILING TEST FIRST
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```
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Both clauses are non-negotiable.
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## Dispatch
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Dispatch `debugger` with:
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| Carrier field | Content |
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|---------------|---------|
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| `symptom` | Exact error message, stack trace, wrong output, or repro command |
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| `repro_known` | One-line repro if known, otherwise the agent finds one |
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| `recent_iter` | Iteration that last touched the suspected area (often `git log` tail) |
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The agent writes the RED test to the working tree (uncommitted)
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and reports the handoff carrier for `implement` mini-mode. The
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agent does NOT commit anything, and does NOT write the fix —
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splitting RED (this skill) and GREEN (`implement` mini-mode)
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across two dispatches keeps the diagnosis honest. The
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orchestrator decides whether to commit the RED test as a
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separate audit-trail commit before dispatching `implement`
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mini-mode, or to hand the dirty working tree directly to
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mini-mode (the mini-mode orchestrator's Phase-0 clean-tree
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check will refuse the latter — so for an audit-trail-preserving
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flow the orchestrator commits the RED test first; for a
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streamlined-fix flow the orchestrator commits the combined
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RED+GREEN at the end of mini-mode).
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## Handoff Contract
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`debug` produces, for `implement` mini-mode:
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| Field | Content |
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|-------|---------|
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| `red_test_path` | absolute path to the failing test file — minimal and autonomous (Phase 3) |
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| `cause_summary` | 1-2 sentences naming the file + function + why |
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| `constraint` | `"minimal fix, no surrounding cleanup"` |
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Anything else (broader refactor, doc rewrite, new feature) is
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OUT of scope for the bug-fix iteration and gets queued for a
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separate one.
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## Cross-references
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- **Agent dispatched:** `agents/debugger.md` — carries the
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four-phase process, the Phase 4.5 escalation rule, the
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Common Rationalisations table, and the Red Flags list. The
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orchestrator does not execute these phases directly.
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- **Hand-off target:** `../implement/SKILL.md` — runs the
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GREEN side after the orchestrator has decided whether to
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commit the RED test separately or as part of the final fix
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commit.
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