Skills systematic-debugging

📦

systematic-debugging

Name: systematic-debugging
Author: ZhanlinCui

Content revision r1 Medium Risk ⚙️ External commands📁 Filesystem access🔑 Env variables

Debug With Root Cause Discipline

Random fixes can waste time and create new defects. This skill guides Claude, Codex, and Claude Code through evidence-based debugging before fixes.

Supports: Claude Codex Code(CC)

📊 71 Adequate

Install with my Agent

Copy this request to your Agent. It includes the canonical Skill page and manifest.

Agent request

Review the Skillstore skill "systematic-debugging" from https://skillstore.io/skills/zhanlincui-systematic-debugging.md and its manifest at https://skillstore.io/api/skills/zhanlincui-systematic-debugging/manifest. Verify the artifact. You may proceed after verification, subject to the environment's own policy.

Your Agent should still show its plan and request any confirmation required by the security policy.

Agent-readable resources

Use these links when an AI agent, crawler, or script needs clean context instead of reading the full page.

Markdown detail GET /skills/zhanlincui-systematic-debugging.md Signed manifest GET /api/skills/zhanlincui-systematic-debugging/manifest Signed lockfile GET /api/skills/zhanlincui-systematic-debugging/lockfile

Test it

Using "systematic-debugging". A payment test intermittently stays pending after several sleep increases.

Expected outcome:

The skill would stop further sleep changes, inspect status update flow, reproduce the failure, and define the real completion condition.

Using "systematic-debugging". A test run creates repository state in the wrong directory.

Expected outcome:

The skill would trace the directory value from the failing operation back through each caller until the first invalid value is found.

Using "systematic-debugging". A proposed fix passed once but failed on the next run.

Expected outcome:

The skill would reject adding more changes on top, record the failed hypothesis, and return to evidence gathering.

Security Audit

Medium Risk

v4 • 7/8/2026 Open versioned report

I reviewed the static findings in context. The Ruby backtick, reconnaissance, environment-file, and device-file hits are false positives from Markdown fences, TypeScript template literals, safe NODE_ENV checks, and a manual test helper. One medium semantic issue remains because a debugging example can encourage logging environment and keychain state without redaction.

Files scanned

1,262

Lines analyzed

Review items

False positives ignored

Confirmed security concerns (1)

Medium

SKILL.md:90-105

Diagnostic Logging May Expose Sensitive CI Context

The debugging example tells users to inspect environment variables matching IDENTITY and keychain identity state. If copied into CI logs without redaction, this can expose signing or deployment metadata.

The commands are documentation examples and not auto-run, but the example explicitly logs environment and keychain state during signing diagnostics.

Audited by: codex View Audit History →

Share & cite this report

Share the versioned assessment report, neutral badge, embed card, and citations. Skillstore reports evidence without deciding whether this Skill is safe.

Open versioned report

Copy report link

https://skillstore.io/skills/zhanlincui-systematic-debugging/audits/4?utm_source=security_passport&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=versioned_report

Markdown badge

[![Skillstore security assessment](https://skillstore.io/badges/skills/zhanlincui-systematic-debugging/security.svg)](https://skillstore.io/skills/zhanlincui-systematic-debugging?utm_source=security_passport_badge)

HTML badge

<a href="https://skillstore.io/skills/zhanlincui-systematic-debugging?utm_source=security_passport_badge"><img src="https://skillstore.io/badges/skills/zhanlincui-systematic-debugging/security.svg" alt="Skillstore security assessment" loading="lazy"></a>

Embed card

<iframe src="https://skillstore.io/embed/skills/zhanlincui-systematic-debugging.html" title="Skillstore Security Assessment" sandbox="allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox" loading="lazy" referrerpolicy="no-referrer" width="420" height="180"></iframe>

Academic citations (APA · BibTeX · CFF)

APA citation

ZhanlinCui. (2026). systematic-debugging security audit report (audit version 4) [Author version unspecified]. Skillstore. https://skillstore.io/skills/zhanlincui-systematic-debugging/audits/4

BibTeX citation

@techreport{zhanlincui-zhanlincui-systematic-debugging-2026,
  author = {ZhanlinCui},
  title = {systematic-debugging security audit report (audit version 4)},
  institution = {Skillstore},
  year = {2026},
  number = {4},
  url = {https://skillstore.io/skills/zhanlincui-systematic-debugging/audits/4},
  note = {Author version unspecified}
}

CITATION.cff

cff-version: 1.2.0
message: "If you use this Skill, cite its author and this versioned security audit report."
title: "systematic-debugging security audit report (audit version 4)"
version: "unspecified"
type: report
authors:
  - name: "ZhanlinCui"
date-released: "2026-07-08"
url: "https://skillstore.io/skills/zhanlincui-systematic-debugging/audits/4"
identifiers:
  - type: other
    value: "skillstore:zhanlincui-systematic-debugging:audit:4"
    description: "Skillstore immutable audit report identifier"

Compare variants

12 installable variants

Each author remains a separate installable skill. The recommended variant is ranked by Skillstore evidence.

Why this variant is first

Highest Skillstore Score

Author / source Skillstore Score Evidence Confidence Skillstore usage Updated

Asmayaseen Recommended

asmayaseen-systematic-debugging

Skillstore Score 81

Evidence Confidence High

Skillstore usage 20

Updated

2026-08-21

ChrisWiles

chriswiles-systematic-debugging

Skillstore Score 79

Evidence Confidence High

Skillstore usage 11

Updated

2026-08-21

Doyajin174

doyajin174-systematic-debugging

Skillstore Score 79

Evidence Confidence High

Skillstore usage 9

Updated

2026-08-21

DMJGilbert

dmjgilbert-systematic-debugging

Skillstore Score 79

Evidence Confidence High

Skillstore usage 9

Updated

2026-08-21

CodingCossack

codingcossack-systematic-debugging

Skillstore Score 74

Evidence Confidence High

Skillstore usage 59

Updated

2026-08-21

ZhanlinCui Current

zhanlincui-systematic-debugging

Skillstore Score 71

Evidence Confidence High

Skillstore usage 90

Updated

2026-08-21

obra

obra-systematic-debugging

Skillstore Score 71

Evidence Confidence High

Skillstore usage 14

Updated

2026-08-21

Cycleaddict

cycleaddict-systematic-debugging

Skillstore Score 71

Evidence Confidence High

Skillstore usage 5

Updated

2026-08-21

davila7

davila7-systematic-debugging

Skillstore Score 70

Evidence Confidence High

Skillstore usage 5

Updated

2026-08-21

DYAI2025

dyai2025-systematic-debugging

Skillstore Score 70

Evidence Confidence Medium

Skillstore usage 45

Updated

2026-08-21

Cygnusfear

cygnusfear-systematic-debugging

Skillstore Score 50

Evidence Confidence High

Skillstore usage 5

Updated

2026-08-21

sickn33

sickn33-systematic-debugging

Skillstore Score 38

Evidence Confidence Medium

Skillstore usage 12

Updated

2026-08-21

Skillstore Score

Why this score Evidence Confidence: High

Architecture

Maintainability

Content

Community

Spec Compliance

What You Can Build

Investigate Test Failures

Use the checklist to reproduce a failing test, inspect errors, and form one evidence-backed hypothesis before editing code.

Reduce Flaky Async Tests

Replace guess-based sleeps with condition-based waiting after identifying the actual state or event the test needs.

Review Incident Fixes

Check whether a proposed production fix addresses the root cause or only hides the visible symptom.

Try These Prompts

Start a Bug Investigation

Use systematic debugging on this failure. Read the error, list the evidence we have, and tell me the next investigation step before any fix: [failure details].

Trace a Bad Value

Trace this bad value backward through the call chain. Identify the immediate cause, each caller, and the original trigger before recommending a fix: [trace or logs].

Replace Flaky Waiting

Analyze this flaky test. Find the condition it should wait for, explain why current timing is unreliable, and propose a condition-based waiting plan: [test behavior].

Audit a Failed Fix Sequence

We have tried multiple fixes and each failed. Apply the systematic debugging process, identify untested assumptions, and decide whether the architecture should be questioned: [attempt history].

Best Practices

Collect logs, errors, recent changes, and reproduction steps before editing code.
Change one variable at a time so each hypothesis has a clear result.
After finding the root cause, add tests and validation at relevant layers.

Avoid

Applying a familiar fix before proving it matches the current failure.
Increasing timeouts to hide flaky behavior without identifying the awaited condition.
Bundling refactors with the bug fix before the hypothesis is verified.