code-debugging

SKILL.md

Code Debugging

Systematically debug experiment code with structured error categorization and fix strategies.

Input

$0 — Error message, stderr output, or code file with issues

$1 — Optional: the code that produced the error

References

Debug patterns and state machine: ~/.claude/skills/code-debugging/references/debug-patterns.md

Workflow

Step 1: Categorize the Error

Category
Examples
Severity

SyntaxError
Invalid syntax, indentation
Low

ImportError
Missing module, wrong name
Low

RuntimeError
Division by zero, shape mismatch
Medium

TimeoutError
Infinite loop, too slow
Medium

OutputError
Missing files, wrong format
Medium

LogicError
Wrong results, 0% accuracy
High

Step 2: Analyze Root Cause

Read the error traceback (last 1500 chars if truncated)

Identify the exact line and variable causing the error

Check for common patterns:

Device mismatch (CPU vs GPU tensors)

Shape mismatch in matrix operations

Missing data normalization

Off-by-one errors in indexing

Incorrect loss function for task type

Step 3: Apply Fix Strategy

For syntax/import errors: Direct fix, single attempt
For runtime errors: Fix and rerun, up to 4 retries
For logic errors: Reflect on approach, consider alternative methods
For timeout: Reduce dataset size, optimize bottleneck, add early stopping

Step 4: Reflect and Prevent

After fixing:

Explain why the error occurred

Identify which lines caused it

Describe the fix line-by-line

Note patterns to avoid in future code

Fix Strategy State Machine

Stage 0 (first attempt) → repost code as fresh
Stage 1 (second attempt) → repost or leave depending on severity
Stage 2 (third attempt) → regenerate from scratch if still failing

Rules

Prefer minimal targeted edits over full rewrites

Maximum 4-5 fix attempts before changing approach

Always truncate long error outputs to last 1500 characters

After fixing, verify the fix doesn't introduce new errors

Keep error history to avoid repeating the same mistakes

If 0% accuracy: check accuracy calculation first, then check data pipeline

Related Skills

Upstream: experiment-code

See also: paper-to-code, data-analysis

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