Debug Deep

Tree-of-thoughts reasoning for elusive bugs.

When to Use

• Intermittent or hard-to-reproduce bugs
• Standard debugging failed
• Race conditions suspected
• Multiple potential causes

Artifacts

• DEBUG-PLAN-[BUG-ID].md
• task.md updated via task_boundary

Approach

Phase 1: False Premise Challenge

List every assumption in the bug report. Test each as True/False before proceeding:

• Assumption 1: [e.g., "Bug occurs on every load"]
• Assumption 2: [e.g., "Data is correctly formatted"]

Phase 2: Tree of Thoughts (Multi-Hypothesis)

Generate 4-6 hypotheses with dual investigation paths:

#	Hypothesis	Confidence	Path A	Path B	Selected
1	...	High	Check X with grep	Instrument Y	A (faster)
2	...	Medium	Trace via debugger	Reproduce isolated	B (reliable)

Phase 3: Investigation & Fix Plan

• Primary Fix Plan: Main approach
• Reflexion (Security Engineer): List 3 ways fix might fail, introduce vulnerabilities, or degrade performance
• Fallback Plan: If primary fails

Phase 4: Systemic Analysis

• Does this bug represent a class of problems?
• Should a new rule be added to prevent recurrence?

Constraints

• Non-Linear Exploration: Don't converge prematurely
• Must have fallback plan
• If fix fails, iterate (max 3 attempts)