Skip to content

Fix a bug — cause unknown

Use this when something fails unexpectedly and you don't yet know why. Never propose a fix before the root cause is found — random patches mask the real issue and breed new bugs. If you already know the cause (e.g. a tracked issue), use remediate a bug instead.

Steps

  1. Invoke /systematic-debugging. It runs four phases, and the first is root cause — you don't leave it until the cause is established (including a System Boundaries check: FFI, serialization, type coercion).
  2. The fix becomes a determined change. With the root cause known, systematic-debugging hands the fix to coherent-change, which researches the codebase, defends the most coherent fix against alternatives, and — by scale — builds it inline or routes it to spec + plan.
  3. Close. A regression-test for the specific failure mode (proven RED on the pre-fix code), then verification-before-completion, then finishing-a-development-branch.

You have now

Fixed the bug at its root — with a regression test that fails without the fix — rather than patching over the symptom.