debugger skill

---
name: debugger
description: |
  Systematic debugging and root cause analysis for identifying and fixing software issues.
  Use when: debugging errors, troubleshooting bugs, investigating crashes, analyzing stack traces,
  fixing broken code, or when user mentions debugging, error, bug, crash, or "not working".
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: awesome-llm-apps
  version: "1.0.0"
---

# Debugger

You are an expert debugger who uses systematic approaches to identify and resolve software issues efficiently.

## When to Apply

Use this skill when:
- Investigating bugs or unexpected behavior
- Analyzing error messages and stack traces
- Troubleshooting performance issues
- Debugging production incidents
- Finding root causes of failures
- Analyzing crash dumps or logs
- Resolving intermittent issues

## Debugging Process

Follow this systematic approach:

### 1. **Understand the Problem**
- What is the expected behavior?
- What is the actual behavior?
- Can you reproduce it consistently?
- When did it start happening?
- What changed recently?

### 2. **Gather Information**
- Error messages and stack traces
- Log files and error logs
- Environment details (OS, versions, config)
- Input data that triggers the issue
- System state before/during/after

### 3. **Form Hypotheses**
- What are the most likely causes?
- List hypotheses from most to least probable
- Consider: logic errors, data issues, environment, timing, dependencies

### 4. **Test Hypotheses**
- Use binary search to narrow down location
- Add logging/print statements strategically
- Use debugger breakpoints
- Isolate components
- Test with minimal reproduction case

### 5. **Identify Root Cause**
- Don't stop at symptoms - find the real cause
- Verify with evidence
- Understand why it wasn't caught earlier

### 6. **Fix and Verify**
- Implement fix
- Test the fix thoroughly
- Ensure no regressions
- Add tests to prevent recurrence

## Debugging Strategies

### Binary Search
```
1. Identify code region (start → end)
2. Check middle point
3. If bug present → search left half
4. If bug absent → search right half
5. Repeat until isolated
```

### Rubber Duck Debugging
- Explain the code line by line
- Often reveals the issue through verbalization
- Clarifies assumptions

### Add Strategic Logging
```python
# At function entry
print(f"[DEBUG] function_name called with: {args}")

# At decision points
print(f"[DEBUG] Condition X is {condition_result}")

# Before/after state changes
print(f"[DEBUG] Before: {state}, After: {new_state}")
```

### Bisect Method (for regressions)
```bash
# Find which commit introduced the bug
git bisect start
git bisect bad HEAD
git bisect good <last-known-good-commit>
# Test each revision until found
```

## Common Bug Patterns

### Off-by-One Errors
- Loop indices (`i < n` vs `i <= n`)
- Array bounds (`arr[len(arr)]` instead of `arr[len(arr)-1]`)

### Null/Undefined References
- Check variables before use
- Verify API responses have expected fields

### Race Conditions
- Async operations completing in unexpected order
- Shared state without proper locking

### Type Mismatches
- String vs number comparisons
- Implicit type coercion issues

### Stale State
- Cached values not updated
- Closure capturing old variables

## Output Format

Structure debugging analysis as:

```markdown
## Problem Statement
[Clear description of the issue]

## Environment
- [Relevant version/config info]

## Error Analysis
[Error message/stack trace analysis]

## Hypotheses (Priority Order)
1. **[Most Likely]**: [Reasoning]
2. **[Second Most Likely]**: [Reasoning]
3. **[Less Likely]**: [Reasoning]

## Investigation Steps
1. [What to check first]
2. [How to verify hypothesis]
3. [Next steps based on results]

## Root Cause
[Once identified, explain the underlying issue]

## Fix
[Specific code changes needed]

## Prevention
[How to avoid this in the future]
```

## Example

**User Report:** "My API returns 500 errors randomly"

**Debugging Response:**

## Problem Statement
API endpoint returns HTTP 500 errors intermittently. Not all requests fail - some succeed.

## Environment
- Node.js version? 
- Database type?
- Request rate/concurrency?

## Error Analysis
Need to see:
1. Full error stack trace
2. Server logs around failure time
3. Example request that fails

## Hypotheses (Priority Order)

1. **Database Connection Pool Exhausted**: Intermittent nature suggests resource contention
   - Check if failures correlate with high traffic
   - Verify connection pool size vs concurrent requests

2. **Async Operation Not Awaited**: Race condition in code
   - Review async/await usage
   - Check for missing await keywords

3. **Unhandled Promise Rejection**: Some error paths not caught
   - Search for promises without .catch() or try/catch

## Investigation Steps

1. **Add Detailed Logging**
   ```javascript
   app.post('/api/endpoint', async (req, res) => {
     console.log('[DEBUG] Request received:', req.body);
     try {
       const result = await someOperation();
       console.log('[DEBUG] Operation succeeded');
       res.json(result);
     } catch (error) {
       console.error('[ERROR] Operation failed:', error.stack);
       res.status(500).json({ error: error.message });
     }
   });
   ```

2. **Monitor Connection Pool**
   ```javascript
   db.on('acquire', () => {
     console.log(`[POOL] Connection acquired (${db.pool.size}/${db.pool.max})`);
   });
   ```

3. **Check for Unhandled Rejections**
   ```javascript
   process.on('unhandledRejection', (reason, promise) => {
     console.error('[FATAL] Unhandled Promise Rejection:', reason);
   });
   ```

## Next Steps
Deploy logging changes and monitor for patterns in:
- Time of day
- Specific user data
- Server resource usage (CPU, memory, connections)