Apply when debugging. Trace each symptom to its root cause and fix it there; reproduce first, ask why until you reach it, resist nil-check guards that silence crashes.
Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.
What the file says
# Fix Root Causes
When debugging, do not paper over symptoms. Trace every problem to its root cause and fix it there.
**Why:** Symptom fixes accumulate. Each workaround makes the system harder to reason about, and the real bug remains. Root-cause fixes are slower upfront but reduce total debugging time.
**Pattern:**
- Reproduce first (if you can't reproduce it, you can't verify your fix)
- Ask "why" until you hit the root cause
- Resist the urge to add guards (adding a nil check to silence a crash is a symptom fix)
- If a workaround needs a paragraph-long comment to justify it, the code is wrong (fix the code, not the comment)
- Check for the pattern, not just the instance (grep for the same pattern, fix all instances)
- When stuck, instrument. Don't guess (add logging, read the actual error)
- If the user says a retry/repair loop does not continue until X, search `*Limit` / `*budget` / `fails closed after` before assuming the loop is absent — a bound is often the whole bug
…
The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260825.847374d, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_5eeduv4uodfwzyzs
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=edbertchan/catstack/principle-fix-root-causes
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/6d7b6c8156cd7ddb7a86c5c9e14ebb809a88b7af1162a7bd937c7e0da6dc2c24
Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/cat-mode/SKILL.md · Edbert's personal working conventions, mined from real session history across his projects. Use when Edbert asks to…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-assert-invariants-not-last-bug/SKILL.md · Apply after a bug ships past review or a passing grade/check: assert the general class of failure instead of patching…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-bind-to-named-inventory/SKILL.md · Apply after an audit, scoring review, or a request for a "real classifier" / "less arbitrary weights" when existing…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-build-the-lever/SKILL.md · Apply to any non-trivial work, not just bulk work: edits, migrations, analyses, checks. Build the tool that does it or…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-encode-lessons-in-structure/SKILL.md · Apply when you catch yourself writing the same instruction a second time, or notice a recurring correction. Encode the…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-experience-first/SKILL.md · Apply when product, UX, or feature-scope tradeoffs come up. Choose user delight over implementation convenience; ship…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-flag-your-own-corrections/SKILL.md · Apply whenever you are about to admit fault in any wording — a fact, number, claim, or check you already stated turns…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-generalize-from-rejection/SKILL.md · Apply when a mechanical gate — a lint, validator, blocked-command guard, or CI check — rejects your output for the same…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-guard-the-context-window/SKILL.md · Apply when context is filling up: large outputs, long files, repeated reads, fan-out planning. Route bulk to subagents…
cursor/plugins · harness/pstack/claude-code/skills/principle-fix-root-causes/SKILL.md · Apply when debugging. Trace each symptom back to the first place the system went wrong and fix it there. A guard is a…
cursor/plugins · pstack/skills/principle-fix-root-causes/SKILL.md · Apply when debugging. Trace each symptom back to the first place the system went wrong and fix it there. A guard is a…
michael-denyer/pstack-claude · plugins/pstack/skills/principle-fix-root-causes/SKILL.md · Apply when debugging. Trace each symptom back to the first place the system went wrong and fix it there. A guard is a…
backnotprop/pstack · skills/principle-fix-root-causes/SKILL.md · Apply when debugging. Trace each symptom back to the first place the system went wrong and fix it there. A guard is a…
j-star-films-studios/vibecode-protocol-suite · assets/.agent/skills/engineering-principles/fix-root-causes/SKILL.md · Apply when debugging. Trace each symptom to its root cause and fix it there; reproduce first, ask why until you reach…
creedants/pstack-t3 · skills/principle-fix-root-causes/SKILL.md · Apply when debugging. Trace each symptom back to the first place the system went wrong and fix it there. A guard is a…
arjitj2/open-pstack · plugins/pstack/skills/principle-fix-root-causes/SKILL.md · Apply when debugging. Trace each symptom back to the first place the system went wrong and fix it there. A guard is a…
painhardcore/pstack · .opencode/skills/principle-fix-root-causes/SKILL.md · Apply when debugging. Trace each symptom to its root cause and fix it there; reproduce first, ask why until you reach…
