This skill should be used when diagnosing failures, investigating incidents, finding root causes, or when root cause, diagnosis, investigate, or --rca are mentioned.
Conducts formal root cause investigations for incidents and produces prevention-focused RCA reports.
npx claudepluginhub outfitter-dev/outfitterThis skill inherits all available tools. When active, it can use any tool Claude has access to.
references/documentation-templates.mdreferences/elimination-techniques.mdreferences/pitfalls.mdDelegated investigation: symptom → hypothesis → elimination → root cause → prevention.
debugging skill for systematic investigation<when_to_use>
NOT for: known issues with documented fixes, simple configuration errors, routine debugging (use debugging skill directly)
</when_to_use>
<rca_focus>
This skill extends debugging with formal RCA practices:
| Aspect | Debugging | Root Cause Analysis |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Fix the immediate issue | Understand why it happened |
| Output | Working code | RCA report + prevention |
| Documentation | Investigation notes | Formal templates |
| Goal | Resolution | Prevention of recurrence |
Use debugging for day-to-day bug fixes. Use find-root-causes for incidents requiring formal investigation and documentation.
</rca_focus>
<elimination_techniques>
Three core techniques for narrowing to root cause:
| Technique | When to Use | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Binary Search | Large problem space, ordered changes | Bisect the change range |
| Variable Isolation | Multiple variables, need causation | Control all but one |
| Process of Elimination | Finite set of possible causes | Rule out systematically |
See elimination-techniques.md for detailed methods and examples.
</elimination_techniques>
<documentation>Log every step for handoff and pattern recognition:
[TIME] STAGE: Action → Result
[10:15] DISCOVERY: Gathered error logs → Found NullPointerException
[10:22] HYPOTHESIS: User object not initialized
[10:28] TEST: Added null check logging → Confirmed user is null
See documentation-templates.md for full templates.
</documentation><common_pitfalls>
| Trap | Counter |
|---|---|
| "I already looked at that" | Re-examine with fresh evidence |
| "That can't be the issue" | Test anyway, let evidence decide |
| "We need to fix this quickly" | Methodical investigation is faster |
| Confirmation bias | Actively seek disconfirming evidence |
| Correlation = causation | Test direct causal mechanism |
See pitfalls.md for detailed resistance patterns and recovery.
</common_pitfalls>
<rules>ALWAYS:
NEVER:
Activates when the user asks about AI prompts, needs prompt templates, wants to search for prompts, or mentions prompts.chat. Use for discovering, retrieving, and improving prompts.
Search, retrieve, and install Agent Skills from the prompts.chat registry using MCP tools. Use when the user asks to find skills, browse skill catalogs, install a skill for Claude, or extend Claude's capabilities with reusable AI agent components.
This skill should be used when the user asks to "create an agent", "add an agent", "write a subagent", "agent frontmatter", "when to use description", "agent examples", "agent tools", "agent colors", "autonomous agent", or needs guidance on agent structure, system prompts, triggering conditions, or agent development best practices for Claude Code plugins.