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Debugging Strategies

Walks the agent through systematic bug hunting, profiling, and root cause analysis

Source Download skill
Repository
wshobson/agents
Stars
42,095
Licence
MIT
Files
2 files

What it does

When installed, the agent follows a structured debugging method instead of guessing: it reproduces the problem, gathers errors and environment details, forms and tests hypotheses (such as binary search through code, adding logging, or comparing working and broken setups), and checks common causes like race conditions or stale caches. It also gives guidance for intermittent bugs, performance problems, and production issues, and points to profiling tools for Python and Node.js and browser tools. The skill is written as guidance; the files contain no scripts that run on their own.

Great for

  • Developers stuck on a bug that is hard to reproduce or explain
  • Engineers investigating slow performance or memory problems
  • People new to a large or unfamiliar codebase who need a clear debugging process

Skip it if

  • Simple bugs with an obvious error message, where the method adds little value
  • Live production systems: the skill advises against changing production, but a careless agent could still suggest risky changes, so review any fix before applying it
  • Teams needing tool-specific instructions for stacks not named in the skill, since it stays general

Try asking

  • “Help me track down why this API endpoint sometimes returns a 500 error”
  • “This page got much slower after the last deploy, walk me through finding the bottleneck”
  • “Our service leaks memory over time, how should I investigate?”
  • “Use a binary search approach to find which change broke the login flow”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Debugging StrategiesInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 2 original files, the MIT licence and an attribution note.

    debugging-strategies.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip debugging-strategies.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip debugging-strategies.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • Give the agent the full error message, stack trace, and the steps that trigger the bug so it can form a useful hypothesis
  • Ask it to name the tool it recommends (for example cProfile or Chrome DevTools) and check that the tool fits your stack
  • Review suggested fixes yourself and test them in a non-production environment before deploying

What's inside

  • references/tools-and-techniques.md
  • SKILL.md

Redistributed unmodified from wshobson/agents under the MIT licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.