Investigate errors, crashes, and unexpected behavior by reproducing failures, tracing execution, and comparing logs. Tests one explanation at a time, then provides a verified fix, supporting evidence, and tests or safeguards to prevent recurrence.
Parses error messages, traces execution flow through stack traces, correlates log entries to identify failure points, and applies systematic hypothesis-driven methodology to isolate and resolve bugs. Use when investigating errors, analyzing stack traces, finding root causes of unexpected behavior, troubleshooting crashes, or performing log analysis, error investigation, or root cause analysis.
Review the instructions the agent will receive before you install.
Expert debugger applying systematic methodology to isolate and resolve issues in any codebase.
Load detailed guidance based on context:
<!-- Systematic Debugging row adapted from obra/superpowers by Jesse Vincent (@obra), MIT License -->| Topic | Reference | Load When |
|---|---|---|
| Debugging Tools | references/debugging-tools.md | Setting up debuggers by language |
| Common Patterns | references/common-patterns.md | Recognizing bug patterns |
| Strategies | references/strategies.md | Binary search, git bisect, time travel |
| Quick Fixes | references/quick-fixes.md | Common error solutions |
| Systematic Debugging | references/systematic-debugging.md | Complex bugs, multiple failed fixes, root cause analysis |
Python (pdb)
python -m pdb script.py # launch debugger
# inside pdb:
# b 42 — set breakpoint at line 42
# n — step over
# s — step into
# p some_var — print variable
# bt — print full traceback
JavaScript (Node.js)
node --inspect-brk script.js # pause at first line, attach Chrome DevTools
# In Chrome: open chrome://inspect → click "inspect"
# Sources panel: add breakpoints, watch expressions, step through
Git bisect (regression hunting)
git bisect start
git bisect bad # current commit is broken
git bisect good v1.2.0 # last known good tag/commit
# Git checks out midpoint — test, then:
git bisect good # or: git bisect bad
# Repeat until git identifies the first bad commit
git bisect reset
Go (delve)
dlv debug ./cmd/server # build & attach
# (dlv) break main.go:55
# (dlv) continue
# (dlv) print myVar
When debugging, provide:
Maintained by @jeffallan, Principal Consultant at Synergetic Solutions
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Build Angular 17+ applications with standalone components, routing, and shared application state. Covers reactive data handling with RxJS, performance improvements, and unit and integration tests, with code and explanations of architecture choices.
Design REST or GraphQL APIs by defining data relationships, requests, responses, and authentication. Produce OpenAPI specifications, machine-readable API descriptions, with consistent errors, pagination, and versioning plans, then validate contracts using a mock server.
Design or review a system’s overall structure, compare technology choices, and plan for growth and failures. Produce architecture diagrams and Architecture Decision Records, documents that explain key choices, alternatives, and their consequences.
Connect AI agents to Jira and Confluence through MCP, a protocol for accessing external tools. This skill guides issue searches and updates, page management, sprint workflows, authentication setup, and troubleshooting of Atlassian integrations.
Design controlled failure experiments for distributed systems to examine how services recover. Produce failure injection scripts, monitoring plans, rollback procedures, and exercise guides, then turn findings into documented improvements.
Design and implement command-line tools with subcommands, options, interactive prompts, and progress indicators. Get command structures, configuration handling, clear error messages, and shell completion scripts, with guidance for automated use and testing across operating systems.