Systematic Debugging

A four-phase framework that stops you from guessing randomly when debugging. It walks through reproduce, isolate, understand, and fix with actual checklists for each step. The "5 Whys" root cause analysis is straight out of Toyota's playbook, which feels almost comically systematic for code but honestly works better than poking around. Uses read, glob, and grep tools only, so it's purely investigative. The anti-patterns list nails the common mistakes: random changes, not reproducing first, stopping at symptoms. Best when you're staring at a complex bug and your instinct is to just start changing things hoping something sticks.

skills.sh installs: 186
GitHub stars: 7.6K
last updated: Jun 3, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add vudovn/antigravity-kit --skill systematic-debugging --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Systematic Debugging

Source: obra/superpowers

Overview

This skill provides a structured approach to debugging that prevents random guessing and ensures problems are properly understood before solving.

4-Phase Debugging Process

Phase 1: Reproduce

Before fixing, reliably reproduce the issue.

## Reproduction Steps
1. [Exact step to reproduce]
2. [Next step]
3. [Expected vs actual result]

## Reproduction Rate
- [ ] Always (100%)
- [ ] Often (50-90%)
- [ ] Sometimes (10-50%)
- [ ] Rare (<10%)

Phase 2: Isolate

Narrow down the source.

## Isolation Questions
- When did this start happening?
- What changed recently?
- Does it happen in all environments?
- Can we reproduce with minimal code?
- What's the smallest change that triggers it?

Phase 3: Understand

Find the root cause, not just symptoms.

## Root Cause Analysis
### The 5 Whys
1. Why: [First observation]
2. Why: [Deeper reason]
3. Why: [Still deeper]
4. Why: [Getting closer]
5. Why: [Root cause]