Home / kunolu / 640-skills · sbtd-workflow-onboard/assets/external-skills/stable/skills/diagnosing-bugs/SKILL.md · GitHub

diagnosing-bugs skillA

Name: diagnosing-bugs
Author: kunolu

This file is byte-identical to the first copy the registry indexed, one of 8 copies on public GitHub. Same content hash, same audit grade.

diagnosing-bugs is agent-read markdown (skill) from kunolu/640-skills: Diagnosis loop for hard bugs and performance regressions. Use when the user says "diagnose"/"debug this", or reports something broken/throwing/failing/slow..

Indexed from public GitHub and served as immutable, content-addressed versions. Install it pinned to an exact SHA-256 with the mdr CLI, and every file is verified against the hash recorded here before it reaches your agent. The deterministic audit below grades the latest version, and the same file always earns the same grade.

What the file says

# Diagnosing Bugs

A discipline for hard bugs. Skip phases only when explicitly justified.

When exploring the codebase, read `CONTEXT.md` (if it exists) to get a clear mental model of the relevant modules, and check ADRs in the area you're touching.

## Redact

This skill has you show commands, outputs and captured artifacts. **Redact every secret first**: write `<REDACTED>` in its place. Build loops against env vars, so the credential stays in the environment rather than in what you show. Captured artifacts carry auth headers: quote only the lines that carry the signal.

If the redacted output is not enough to diagnose the bug, say so and ask the user.

## Phase 1: Build a feedback loop

**This is the skill.** Everything else is mechanical. If you have a **tight** pass/fail signal for the bug (one that goes red on _this_ bug), you will find the cause; bisection, hypothesis-testing, and instrumentation all just consume it. 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, in roughly this order
…

Read the whole file at its exact version.

How to install

Latest version

mdr add kunolu/640-skills/diagnosing-bugs@git:20260827.561ec6a

Exact content

mdr add kunolu/640-skills/diagnosing-bugs@sha256:77f3cf31bc99b2f4

Pin to a label to follow the author's releases, or to a sha256 to freeze the exact bytes forever. Either way the resolved hash is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install reproduces it on any machine.

Badge

[![mdr](https://markdownregistry.com/badge/art_s6d4anwl3iqhnh7m.svg)](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_s6d4anwl3iqhnh7m)

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Versions

version	committed	commit	size	audit
git:20260827.561ec6a latest	2026-08-27	561ec6a	8,529 B	A	view · diff
git:20260812.12c9286	2026-08-12	12c9286	8,969 B	A	view · diff
git:20260718.951ea5b	2026-07-18	951ea5b	8,536 B	A	view

Audit of the latest version

A 17 of 17 checks passed. Deterministic, no model, same answer every run.

pass: Frontmatter block present
pass: Frontmatter declares a name
pass: Frontmatter declares a description
pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (8529 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

GitHub

kunolu/640-skills · 113 stars · license Apache-2.0 · pushed 2026-09-25 · branch main

API

GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_s6d4anwl3iqhnh7m
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=kunolu/640-skills/diagnosing-bugs
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/77f3cf31bc99b2f49af943222526531fcc9fc41d047626d3640e875e85af3e84

Your agent 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.

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