systematic-debugging SKILL.md skillA
systematic-debugging from jkheadley/instar is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add jkheadley/instar/systematic-debugging@v1.0Pins v1.0 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- jkheadley/instar
- Path
skills/systematic-debugging/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- v1.0, committed Feb 26, 2026
- Size
- 9,579 bytes
- Repository stars
- 85
- License
- MIT
Structured 4-phase debugging methodology that prevents blind probing and guesswork. Forces root cause identification before any fix attempt. Use when encountering bugs, errors, unexpected behavior, test failures, or when something "just stopped working." Trigger words: debug, bug, error, broken, not working, fix this, something's wrong, investigate, root cause, why is this failing, trace the issue.
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 — Structured Root Cause Analysis for Agents When something breaks, the instinct is to start changing code — adding logs, tweaking values, commenting things out. This is probing, not debugging. Probing works sometimes, but it scales poorly and teaches nothing. Structured debugging finds the root cause, fixes it once, and leaves you understanding why. This skill enforces a 4-phase process. You do NOT skip phases. You do NOT jump to a fix before completing Phase 2. Each phase has a clear deliverable that must exist before the next phase begins. --- ## When to Activate This Skill Use this skill when: - An error occurs and the cause is not immediately obvious (> 30 seconds of uncertainty) - A test fails and you don't know exactly why - Something that was working has stopped working - The user reports unexpected behavior - You've already tried one fix and it didn't work (this is the clearest signal — stop guessing, start debugging) - A job or scheduled task is failing silently - Behavior differs between environments (local vs production, different machines) Do NOT use this skill for: …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add jkheadley/instar/systematic-debugging@sha256:445529828b83a6d2The line at the top of this page pins the label v1.0, 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_bvben7bn4cnadyu2)
4 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Feb 26, 2026.
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 (9579 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
jkheadley/instar · 85 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-11-05 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_bvben7bn4cnadyu2 GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=jkheadley/instar/systematic-debugging GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/445529828b83a6d20a8aee74a087bffac08825b944f487a7e0daf53ddb7dd637
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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