Home / coco-research / coco · skills/systematic-debugging/SKILL.md · GitHub

systematic-debugging skillA

systematic-debugging is agent-read markdown (skill) from coco-research/coco: Use when encountering any bug, test failure, or unexpected behavior, before proposing fixes.

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

# Systematic Debugging

## Overview

**Announce at start:** "Systematic Debugging skill activated."

Random fixes waste time and create new bugs. Quick patches mask underlying issues.

**Core principle:** ALWAYS find root cause before attempting fixes. Symptom fixes are failure.

**Violating the letter of this process is violating the spirit of debugging.**

## The Iron Law

```
NO FIXES WITHOUT ROOT CAUSE INVESTIGATION FIRST
```

If you haven't completed Phase 1, you cannot propose fixes.

## When to Use

Use for ANY technical issue:
- Test failures
- Bugs in production
- Unexpected behavior
- Performance problems
- Build failures
- Integration issues

**Use this ESPECIALLY when:**
- Under time pressure (emergencies make guessing tempting)
- "Just one quick fix" seems obvious
- You've already tried multiple fixes
- Previous fix didn't work
- You don't fully understand the issue

**Don't skip when:**
- Issue seems simple (simple bugs have root causes too)
- You're in a hurry (rushing guarantees rework)
- Manager wants it fixed NOW (systematic is faster than thrashing)

## The Four Phases

You MUST complete each phase before proceeding to the next.
…

Read the whole file at its exact version.

How to install

Latest version
mdr add coco-research/coco/systematic-debugging@git:20260802.1479e32
Exact content
mdr add coco-research/coco/systematic-debugging@sha256:c944405fa8a8a31c

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 badge

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Versions

versioncommittedcommitsizeaudit
git:20260802.1479e32 latest2026-08-02 1479e32 9,969 BA view · diff
git:20260426.d53cc6c2026-04-26 d53cc6c 9,948 BA 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 (9969 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

coco-research/coco · 478 stars · license NOASSERTION · pushed 2026-09-25 · branch main

API

GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_tgbdhz2h4irw5gjz
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=coco-research/coco/systematic-debugging
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/c944405fa8a8a31c1be6cabe039dae02cea7adfa549bb69ca2f1f008c0984e7f

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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Every file in coco-research/coco

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