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principle-fix-root-causes

Use for any debugging or bug fix. Repair the earliest point where the system decided wrongly, rather than where the bad state showed up. A guard is a real fix only for a state the system is permitted to reach.

plugins/requie/endostack/skills/principle-fix-root-causes/SKILL.md

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# Fix root causes

Locate the earliest wrong decision the system made and repair it there, rather than at the spot where the damage became visible. Adding a guard counts as a fix only if the state it catches is a legitimate one for the system to be in.

## When it applies

All debugging and bug-fix work. If several fixes resting on one assumption have already failed, combine this with [principle-attack-the-premise](../principle-attack-the-premise/SKILL.md).

## What to do

1. Reproduce the failure before changing anything.
2. Keep asking why until you reach a decision in code that was itself wrong, as opposed to one that followed correctly from an earlier mistake.
3. When you are stuck, instrument. Read the real error and the real state. Do not guess.
4. Classify the triggering state. If it is legitimate, the code that failed on it is at fault, and handling it in that code is the right fix. If the state should never occur, testing for it where it showed up only conceals the bug, so follow it back to whatever created it. Be suspicious of guards, retries, swallowed exceptions, clamped values, and discarded state.