systematic-debugging SKILL.md skillA
systematic-debugging from rikvanriel/code-hygiene is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add rikvanriel/code-hygiene/systematic-debugging@v1.0.0Pins v1.0.0 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- rikvanriel/code-hygiene
- Path
skills/systematic-debugging/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 5
- Latest version
- v1.0.0, committed Sep 19, 2026
- First version recorded
- Sep 16, 2026
- Size
- 4,143 bytes
- Repository stars
- 2
- License
- MIT
Use when debugging a failure — failing test, crash, broken behavior, or flake. Finds root cause before fixing.
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
# Systematic Debugging — Conduct Before Fixing Capability: produce fix where reviewer sees cause chain, not fix narrative. ## Principle: Demand root cause before workaround Don't reboot, don't retry loop suppression, don't blind retry. Demand cause. If unknown, TODO + collect evidence, not plausible fill. ## Phase 0 — Understand - Who hits it, what breaks (observable failure), when: frequency, workload, recent change. - Collect artifacts: logs, dumps, repro command, version, config, bisect if available. Paste verbatim, not paraphrase. - Map ownership: which component owns resource, who serializes access, what synchronizes. ## Phase 1 — Reproducible case - Minimal reproducible case that produces artifact (log line, metric, failing test, return code). - Steps: command + expected vs actual. Save file under test/ or attached. - If cannot repro, document why + what evidence makes fix still justified (production artifact, invariant violation provable by code inspection). Verification: ```bash ./repro.sh 2>&1 | tee "$TMPDIR/repro.log"; grep -q "EXPECTED_FAILURE" "$TMPDIR/repro.log" && echo REPRO_OK ``` ## Phase 2 — Minimal fix + ownership analysis …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add rikvanriel/code-hygiene/systematic-debugging@sha256:0407edfd896c64e9The line at the top of this page pins the label v1.0.0, 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.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_7dxwochewx4ro6ec)
1 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 5 versions of this file, between Sep 16, 2026 and Sep 19, 2026, more than one a day.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.0.0 latest | 2026-09-19 | 6e3ad54 | 4,143 B | A | view · diff |
| v1.0.0 | 2026-09-17 | f466313 | 4,133 B | A | view · diff |
| v1.0.0 | 2026-09-17 | 4fc5ed9 | 4,149 B | A | view · diff |
| v1.0.0 | 2026-09-17 | 6de94e8 | 4,107 B | A | view · diff |
| v1.0.0 | 2026-09-16 | dfba4be | 4,196 B | A | view |
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (4143 bytes)
- pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
- pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
- pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
- pass: No credential-shaped string
- pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
- pass: No text hidden with inline styles
- pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
- pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
- pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
- pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
- pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
- pass: No link to a raw IP address
- pass: No script tag
Source
rikvanriel/code-hygiene · 2 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-10-16 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_7dxwochewx4ro6ec GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=rikvanriel/code-hygiene/systematic-debugging GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/0407edfd896c64e938958d86f748680f732050058f63365dc1a7b39338dd03f6
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.
Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.
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