From d7a339ae5ac2fc924069164093534fc3664efb02 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Harry Bayliss Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2026 21:33:35 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Add diagnostic and planning skills --- diagnose/SKILL.md | 117 +++++++++++++++++++++++++ diagnose/scripts/hitl-loop.template.sh | 41 +++++++++ grill-me/SKILL.md | 10 +++ zoom-out/SKILL.md | 7 ++ 4 files changed, 175 insertions(+) create mode 100644 diagnose/SKILL.md create mode 100644 diagnose/scripts/hitl-loop.template.sh create mode 100644 grill-me/SKILL.md create mode 100644 zoom-out/SKILL.md diff --git a/diagnose/SKILL.md b/diagnose/SKILL.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba61c4f --- /dev/null +++ b/diagnose/SKILL.md @@ -0,0 +1,117 @@ +--- +name: diagnose +description: Disciplined diagnosis loop for hard bugs and performance regressions. Reproduce -> minimise -> hypothesise -> instrument -> fix -> regression-test. Use when user says "diagnose this" / "debug this", reports a bug, says something is broken/throwing/failing, or describes a performance regression. +--- + +# Diagnose + +A discipline for hard bugs. Skip phases only when explicitly justified. + +When exploring the codebase, use the project's domain glossary to get a clear mental model of the relevant modules, and check ADRs in the area you're touching. + +## Phase 1 - Build a feedback loop + +**This is the skill.** Everything else is mechanical. If you have a fast, deterministic, agent-runnable pass/fail signal for the bug, you will find the cause - bisection, hypothesis-testing, and instrumentation all just consume that signal. If you don't have one, no amount of staring at code will save you. + +Spend disproportionate effort here. **Be aggressive. Be creative. Refuse to give up.** + +### Ways to construct one - try them in roughly this order + +1. **Failing test** at whatever seam reaches the bug - unit, integration, e2e. +2. **Curl / HTTP script** against a running dev server. +3. **CLI invocation** with a fixture input, diffing stdout against a known-good snapshot. +4. **Headless browser script** (Playwright / Puppeteer) - drives the UI, asserts on DOM/console/network. +5. **Replay a captured trace.** Save a real network request / payload / event log to disk; replay it through the code path in isolation. +6. **Throwaway harness.** Spin up a minimal subset of the system (one service, mocked deps) that exercises the bug code path with a single function call. +7. **Property / fuzz loop.** If the bug is "sometimes wrong output", run 1000 random inputs and look for the failure mode. +8. **Bisection harness.** If the bug appeared between two known states (commit, dataset, version), automate "boot at state X, check, repeat" so you can `git bisect run` it. +9. **Differential loop.** Run the same input through old-version vs new-version (or two configs) and diff outputs. +10. **HITL bash script.** Last resort. If a human must click, drive _them_ with `scripts/hitl-loop.template.sh` so the loop is still structured. Captured output feeds back to you. + +Build the right feedback loop, and the bug is 90% fixed. + +### Iterate on the loop itself + +Treat the loop as a product. Once you have _a_ loop, ask: + +- Can I make it faster? (Cache setup, skip unrelated init, narrow the test scope.) +- Can I make the signal sharper? (Assert on the specific symptom, not "didn't crash".) +- Can I make it more deterministic? (Pin time, seed RNG, isolate filesystem, freeze network.) + +A 30-second flaky loop is barely better than no loop. A 2-second deterministic loop is a debugging superpower. + +### Non-deterministic bugs + +The goal is not a clean repro but a **higher reproduction rate**. Loop the trigger 100x, parallelise, add stress, narrow timing windows, inject sleeps. A 50%-flake bug is debuggable; 1% is not - keep raising the rate until it's debuggable. + +### When you genuinely cannot build a loop + +Stop and say so explicitly. List what you tried. Ask the user for: (a) access to whatever environment reproduces it, (b) a captured artifact (HAR file, log dump, core dump, screen recording with timestamps), or (c) permission to add temporary production instrumentation. Do **not** proceed to hypothesise without a loop. + +Do not proceed to Phase 2 until you have a loop you believe in. + +## Phase 2 - Reproduce + +Run the loop. Watch the bug appear. + +Confirm: + +- [ ] The loop produces the failure mode the **user** described - not a different failure that happens to be nearby. Wrong bug = wrong fix. +- [ ] The failure is reproducible across multiple runs (or, for non-deterministic bugs, reproducible at a high enough rate to debug against). +- [ ] You have captured the exact symptom (error message, wrong output, slow timing) so later phases can verify the fix actually addresses it. + +Do not proceed until you reproduce the bug. + +## Phase 3 - Hypothesise + +Generate **3-5 ranked hypotheses** before testing any of them. Single-hypothesis generation anchors on the first plausible idea. + +Each hypothesis must be **falsifiable**: state the prediction it makes. + +> Format: "If is the cause, then will make the bug disappear / will make it worse." + +If you cannot state the prediction, the hypothesis is a vibe - discard or sharpen it. + +**Show the ranked list to the user before testing.** They often have domain knowledge that re-ranks instantly ("we just deployed a change to #3"), or know hypotheses they've already ruled out. Cheap checkpoint, big time saver. Don't block on it - proceed with your ranking if the user is AFK. + +## Phase 4 - Instrument + +Each probe must map to a specific prediction from Phase 3. **Change one variable at a time.** + +Tool preference: + +1. **Debugger / REPL inspection** if the env supports it. One breakpoint beats ten logs. +2. **Targeted logs** at the boundaries that distinguish hypotheses. +3. Never "log everything and grep". + +**Tag every debug log** with a unique prefix, e.g. `[DEBUG-a4f2]`. Cleanup at the end becomes a single grep. Untagged logs survive; tagged logs die. + +**Perf branch.** For performance regressions, logs are usually wrong. Instead: establish a baseline measurement (timing harness, `performance.now()`, profiler, query plan), then bisect. Measure first, fix second. + +## Phase 5 - Fix + regression test + +Write the regression test **before the fix** - but only if there is a **correct seam** for it. + +A correct seam is one where the test exercises the **real bug pattern** as it occurs at the call site. If the only available seam is too shallow (single-caller test when the bug needs multiple callers, unit test that can't replicate the chain that triggered the bug), a regression test there gives false confidence. + +**If no correct seam exists, that itself is the finding.** Note it. The codebase architecture is preventing the bug from being locked down. Flag this for the next phase. + +If a correct seam exists: + +1. Turn the minimised repro into a failing test at that seam. +2. Watch it fail. +3. Apply the fix. +4. Watch it pass. +5. Re-run the Phase 1 feedback loop against the original (un-minimised) scenario. + +## Phase 6 - Cleanup + post-mortem + +Required before declaring done: + +- [ ] Original repro no longer reproduces (re-run the Phase 1 loop) +- [ ] Regression test passes (or absence of seam is documented) +- [ ] All `[DEBUG-...]` instrumentation removed (`grep` the prefix) +- [ ] Throwaway prototypes deleted (or moved to a clearly-marked debug location) +- [ ] The hypothesis that turned out correct is stated in the commit / PR message - so the next debugger learns + +**Then ask: what would have prevented this bug?** If the answer involves architectural change (no good test seam, tangled callers, hidden coupling) hand off to the `/improve-codebase-architecture` skill with the specifics. Make the recommendation **after** the fix is in, not before - you have more information now than when you started. diff --git a/diagnose/scripts/hitl-loop.template.sh b/diagnose/scripts/hitl-loop.template.sh new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0055940 --- /dev/null +++ b/diagnose/scripts/hitl-loop.template.sh @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +#!/usr/bin/env bash +# Human-in-the-loop reproduction loop. +# Copy this file, edit the steps below, and run it. +# The agent runs the script; the user follows prompts in their terminal. +# +# Usage: +# bash hitl-loop.template.sh +# +# Two helpers: +# step "" -> show instruction, wait for Enter +# capture VAR "" -> show question, read response into VAR +# +# At the end, captured values are printed as KEY=VALUE for the agent to parse. + +set -euo pipefail + +step() { + printf '\n>>> %s\n' "$1" + read -r -p " [Enter when done] " _ +} + +capture() { + local var="$1" question="$2" answer + printf '\n>>> %s\n' "$question" + read -r -p " > " answer + printf -v "$var" '%s' "$answer" +} + +# --- edit below --------------------------------------------------------- + +step "Open the app at http://localhost:3000 and sign in." + +capture ERRORED "Click the 'Export' button. Did it throw an error? (y/n)" + +capture ERROR_MSG "Paste the error message (or 'none'):" + +# --- edit above --------------------------------------------------------- + +printf '\n--- Captured ---\n' +printf 'ERRORED=%s\n' "$ERRORED" +printf 'ERROR_MSG=%s\n' "$ERROR_MSG" diff --git a/grill-me/SKILL.md b/grill-me/SKILL.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd04394 --- /dev/null +++ b/grill-me/SKILL.md @@ -0,0 +1,10 @@ +--- +name: grill-me +description: Interview the user relentlessly about a plan or design until reaching shared understanding, resolving each branch of the decision tree. Use when user wants to stress-test a plan, get grilled on their design, or mentions "grill me". +--- + +Interview me relentlessly about every aspect of this plan until we reach a shared understanding. Walk down each branch of the design tree, resolving dependencies between decisions one-by-one. For each question, provide your recommended answer. + +Ask the questions one at a time. + +If a question can be answered by exploring the codebase, explore the codebase instead. diff --git a/zoom-out/SKILL.md b/zoom-out/SKILL.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e7a5dc --- /dev/null +++ b/zoom-out/SKILL.md @@ -0,0 +1,7 @@ +--- +name: zoom-out +description: Tell the agent to zoom out and give broader context or a higher-level perspective. Use when you're unfamiliar with a section of code or need to understand how it fits into the bigger picture. +disable-model-invocation: true +--- + +I don't know this area of code well. Go up a layer of abstraction. Give me a map of all the relevant modules and callers, using the project's domain glossary vocabulary.