Our review
The workflow breaks debugging into evidence gathering, pattern comparison, a testable hypothesis, and implementation. It urges the agent to reproduce the problem, inspect the failing boundary, trace data across components, and change one plausible cause at a time. Supporting notes cover root-cause tracing, layered defenses, and waiting for conditions instead of arbitrary delays.
Use it for a recurring bug, failing test, or surprising integration behavior where a quick patch could conceal the real defect. Skip the full ceremony for an obvious typo with a direct failing check. Its strong wording is useful against premature fixes, but a reviewer should still decide how much investigation the problem warrants. A plausible explanation alone is not a regression test.
The folder includes examples and a shell script named find-polluter.sh for locating a contaminating test or state change. That script can run tests repeatedly, so inspect its commands and cost before using it. The SKILL.md itself does not require a network call; project tools invoked during diagnosis may have their own effects.
For installation, open the linked maintainer folder and read its current SKILL.md, license, and supporting files. Copy the complete folder to a skills location your agent documents, or use an installer your agent supports. Begin with a small, low-risk task and confirm that the agent loaded the intended version. Our install guide covers those checks.
Source and license
Maintainer: Jesse Vincent / obra. Checked: October 18, 2026. The maintainer controls this repository; the current files may differ from the version we reviewed.