Workflow Bugfix

Quick Summary

Goal: [Workflow] Trigger Bug Fix workflow — systematic debugging with root cause investigation, fix, and verification.

Workflow:

1. Detect — classify request scope and target artifacts.
2. Execute — apply required steps with evidence-backed actions.
3. Verify — confirm constraints, output quality, and completion evidence.

Key Rules:

• MUST ATTENTION keep claims evidence-based (file:line) with confidence >80% to act.
• MUST ATTENTION keep task tracking updated as each step starts/​completes.
• MUST ATTENTION when creating/​reviewing specs or tests, name Business Intent / Invariant Guarded or the protected business intent/​invariant and ensure the test would fail if that intent breaks.
• MUST ATTENTION define success criteria before execution and loop until observable verification passes.
• MUST ATTENTION require regression tests to name Business Intent / Invariant Guarded and fail if that intent breaks.
• MUST ATTENTION apply the shared SDD Artifact Contract from shared/​sdd-artifact-contract.md in the active skills root; use docs/​project-config.json and docs/​project-reference/​docs-index-reference.md for project-specific conventions.
• MUST ATTENTION record current behavior, expected behavior, and unchanged behavior that must be preserved before fixing.
• MUST ATTENTION treat code-extracted specs and TCs as reference-only until canonical review accepts them.
• MUST ATTENTION allow any supported AI tool to implement or review when the shared contract, synced context, and local docs are available.
• NEVER skip mandatory workflow or skill gates.

Repeated Steps Disambiguation (CRITICAL for task creation)

[TASK-PLANNING] Before acting, analyze task scope and systematically break it into small todo tasks and sub-tasks using TaskCreate.

[IMPORTANT] Analyze how big the task is and break it into many small todo tasks systematically before starting — this is very important.

IMPORTANT MANDATORY Steps: /​scout -> /​investigate -> /​debug-investigate -> /​plan -> /​why-review -> /​plan-review -> /​why-review -> /​plan-validate -> /​why-review -> /​tdd-spec -> /​why-review -> /​tdd-spec-review -> /​integration-test -> /​fix -> /​prove-fix -> /​integration-test -> /​integration-test-review -> /​integration-test-verify -> /​tdd-spec [direction=sync] -> /​workflow-review-changes -> /​changelog -> /​test -> /​docs-update -> /​watzup -> /​workflow-end

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IMPORTANT MANDATORY Steps: /​scout -> /​investigate -> /​debug-investigate -> /​plan -> /​why-review -> /​plan-review -> /​why-review -> /​plan-validate -> /​why-review -> /​tdd-spec -> /​why-review -> /​tdd-spec-review -> /​integration-test -> /​fix -> /​prove-fix -> /​integration-test -> /​integration-test-review -> /​integration-test-verify -> /​tdd-spec [direction=sync] -> /​workflow-review-changes -> /​changelog -> /​test -> /​docs-update -> /​watzup -> /​workflow-end

[BLOCKING] Each step MUST ATTENTION invoke its Skill tool — marking a task completed without skill invocation is a workflow violation. NEVER batch-complete validation gates.

[CRITICAL] Plan Before Fix Gate: The /​plan → /​plan-review → /​plan-validate steps are MANDATORY before /​fix. You MUST ATTENTION create todo tasks for these plan steps AND complete them before proceeding to fix. Never skip planning — fixes without validated plans lead to incomplete root cause analysis and regressions.

Activate the bugfix workflow. Run /​workflow-start bugfix with the user's prompt as context.

Spec check (before investigation): If docs/​specs/ has a spec for the affected service/​module, read the relevant ERD + business-rules + API-contracts files FIRST. Engineering specs provide domain context that reduces investigation time significantly. Command: ls docs/​specs/ to discover available app buckets or flat system folders; then probe ls docs/​specs/​{app-bucket}/ or ls docs/​specs/​{system-name}/ to find the specific service spec.

[BLOCKING] Code Bug vs Spec Bug Gate: Before writing regression TCs, classify the issue:

• Code Bug — the canonical spec describes intended behavior, but code diverged. Write regression TCs for the intended behavior before fixing code.
• Spec Bug — the spec documents wrong behavior and code faithfully implements it. Update canonical spec/​docs first, then write TCs for the corrected behavior.
• Ambiguous — ask the user or product owner which behavior is intended before writing TCs.

Include a behavior preservation note: current behavior -> expected behavior -> unchanged behavior to preserve -> regression TC/​test evidence.

[BLOCKING] End-to-start trace before fix plan: Before /​plan, /​tdd-spec, or /​fix, the investigation must include observed final state, final reader/​query/​renderer/​assertion, backward hops through storage/​projection/​writer/​consumer/​producer, all feeder paths, hypothesis matrix, owning fix layer, and forward convergence proof. Missing trace evidence blocks the fix path.

Steps: /​scout → /​investigate → /​debug-investigate → /​plan → /​why-review → /​plan-review → /​why-review → /​plan-validate → /​why-review → /​tdd-spec → /​why-review → /​tdd-spec-review → /​integration-test → /​fix → /​prove-fix → /​integration-test → /​integration-test-review → /​integration-test-verify → /​tdd-spec [direction=sync] → /​workflow-review-changes → /​changelog → /​test → /​docs-update → /​watzup → /​workflow-end

[PERFORMANCE-SDD ROUTE] If this bug fix is performance-related (latency, throughput, memory, query speed, load behavior), activate /​workflow-performance and require SLA/​benchmark evidence: target metric, baseline, measurement command, and acceptable regression budget. Do not use performance scope to bypass functional no-regression checks: run /​test and any relevant functional checks when behavior can change. Update docs/​specs for changed SLA, performance constraints, or behavior boundaries.

[TDD-FIRST BUG FIX] The two /​integration-test occurrences are intentional and serve distinct purposes:

First /​integration-test (RED phase): Write a regression test that REPRODUCES the bug. Run it — it MUST FAIL. If it passes, the test does not catch the bug. Proceed to fix only after the test fails — never start the fix while the test still passes. Second /​integration-test (GREEN phase): Re-run integration tests after the fix — expect all to PASS. Confirms the fix works AND the regression guard is in place. /​integration-test-review: Verify tests have real assertion value (not smoke/​existence-only checks).

<!-- SYNC:end-to-start-debugger-trace -->

End-to-Start Debugger Trace — For non-trivial bugs, failed verification, regression fixes, behavior-changing code, or unclear code flow, start from the observed final state and walk backward before proposing a fix.

1. Frame 0: observed end state — Name the exact user-visible output, failing assertion, log line, persisted value, API response, rendered UI, or aggregate bucket. Record the reader/​query/​renderer that produced it with file:line evidence.
2. Walk backward one hop at a time — Trace final reader -> projection/​cache/​storage -> writer -> consumer/​handler/​job -> producer/​caller -> original trigger. At every hop record: input, transformation, output, owner, and evidence.
3. Enumerate all feeder paths — Find every upstream producer/​caller/​event/​job that can write into the final path, including retry, async, cache, background, and alternate UI/​API paths. Mark each path verified, ruled out, or still unknown.
4. Build the hypothesis matrix — For each plausible cause, list evidence for, evidence against, how to reproduce/​verify, blast radius, and status (primary, contributing, ruled out, latent). Do not fix until competing causes are explicitly resolved or bounded.
5. Choose the owning fix layer — Identify the invariant owner and the lowest shared point that protects all downstream consumers. A fix at the symptom site is rejected unless the symptom site owns the invariant.
6. Prove convergence forward — After choosing the fix, walk start -> end again and show how the corrected state reaches the observed final output. Map each root cause to a fix part and each fix part to a test/​proof.

BLOCKED until: final state named · backward trace written · all feeder paths enumerated · hypothesis matrix completed · owning fix layer justified · forward convergence proof mapped to tests.

NEVER: Start at the first suspicious code path. Collapse multiple producers into one "flow". Treat duplicate symptoms as duplicate records without proving the read model. Skip ruled-out hypotheses.

<!-- /​SYNC:end-to-start-debugger-trace --> <!-- SYNC:nested-task-creation -->

Nested Task Expansion Contract — For workflow-step invocation, the [Workflow] ... row is only a parent container; the child skill still creates visible phase tasks.

1. Call TaskList first. If a matching active parent workflow row exists, set nested=true and record parentTaskId; otherwise run standalone.
2. Create one task per declared phase before phase work. When nested, prefix subjects [N.M] $skill-name — phase.
3. When nested, link the parent with TaskUpdate(parentTaskId, addBlockedBy: [childIds]).
4. Orchestrators must pre-expand a child skill's phase list and link the workflow row before invoking that child skill or sub-agent.
5. Mark exactly one child in_progress before work and completed immediately after evidence is written.
6. Complete the parent only after all child tasks are completed or explicitly cancelled with reason.

Blocked until: TaskList done, child phases created, parent linked when nested, first child marked in_progress.

<!-- /​SYNC:nested-task-creation --> <!-- SYNC:critical-thinking-mindset -->

Critical Thinking Mindset — Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination: Never present guess as fact — cite sources for every claim, admit uncertainty freely, self-check output for errors, cross-reference independently, stay skeptical of own confidence — certainty without evidence root of all hallucination.

<!-- /​SYNC:critical-thinking-mindset --> <!-- SYNC:ai-mistake-prevention -->

AI Mistake Prevention — Failure modes to avoid on every task:

Check downstream references before deleting. Deleting components causes documentation and code staleness cascades. Map all referencing files before removal. Verify AI-generated content against actual code. AI hallucinates APIs, class names, and method signatures. Always grep to confirm existence before documenting or referencing. Trace full dependency chain after edits. Changing a definition misses downstream variables and consumers derived from it. Always trace the full chain. Trace ALL code paths when verifying correctness. Confirming code exists is not confirming it executes. Always trace early exits, error branches, and conditional skips — not just happy path. When debugging, ask "whose responsibility?" before fixing. Trace whether bug is in caller (wrong data) or callee (wrong handling). Fix at responsible layer — never patch symptom site. Assume existing values are intentional — ask WHY before changing. Before changing any constant, limit, flag, or pattern: read comments, check git blame, examine surrounding code. Verify ALL affected outputs, not just the first. Changes touching multiple stacks require verifying EVERY output. One green check is not all green checks. Holistic-first debugging — resist nearest-attention trap. When investigating any failure, list EVERY precondition first (config, env vars, DB names, endpoints, DI registrations, data preconditions), then verify each against evidence before forming any code-layer hypothesis. Surgical changes — apply the diff test. Bug fix: every changed line must trace directly to the bug. Don't restyle or improve adjacent code. Enhancement task: implement improvements AND announce them explicitly. Surface ambiguity before coding — don't pick silently. If request has multiple interpretations, present each with effort estimate and ask. Never assume all-records, file-based, or more complex path.

<!-- /​SYNC:ai-mistake-prevention --> <!-- SYNC:incremental-persistence -->

Incremental Result Persistence — MANDATORY for all sub-agents or heavy inline steps processing >3 files.

1. Before starting: Create report file plans/​reports/​{skill}-{date}-{slug}.md
2. After each file/​section reviewed: Append findings to report immediately — never hold in memory
3. Return to main agent: Summary only (per SYNC:subagent-return-contract) with Full report: path
4. Main agent: Reads report file only when resolving specific blockers

Why: Context cutoff mid-execution loses ALL in-memory findings. Each disk write survives compaction. Partial results are better than no results.

Report naming: plans/​reports/​{skill-name}-{YYMMDD}-{HHmm}-{slug}.md

<!-- /​SYNC:incremental-persistence --> <!-- SYNC:subagent-return-contract -->

Sub-Agent Return Contract — When this skill spawns a sub-agent, the sub-agent MUST return ONLY this structure. Main agent reads only this summary — NEVER requests full sub-agent output inline.

## Sub-Agent Result: [skill-name]

Status: ✅ PASS | ⚠️ PARTIAL | ❌ FAIL
Confidence: [0-100]%

### Findings (Critical/​High only — max 10 bullets)

- [severity] [file:line] [finding]

### Actions Taken

- [file changed] [what changed]

### Blockers (if any)

- [blocker description]

Full report: plans/​reports/[skill-name]-[date]-[slug].md

Main agent reads Full report file ONLY when: (a) resolving a specific blocker, or (b) building a fix plan. Sub-agent writes full report incrementally (per SYNC:incremental-persistence) — not held in memory.

<!-- /​SYNC:subagent-return-contract --> <!-- SYNC:end-to-start-debugger-trace:reminder -->

IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION debugger trace gate: for non-trivial bug/​fix/​investigation/​review work, start at the observed final output and trace backward through reader -> storage/​projection -> writer -> consumer/​job -> producer/​trigger. Enumerate all feeder paths and hypotheses before fixing. BLOCKED until trace, hypothesis matrix, owning fix layer, and forward convergence proof exist.

<!-- /​SYNC:end-to-start-debugger-trace:reminder --> <!-- SYNC:nested-task-creation:reminder -->

• MANDATORY Parent workflow rows do not replace child phase tracking; expand phases and link the parent when nested.
• MANDATORY Orchestrators pre-expand child skill phases before invocation; use [N.M] $skill-name — phase prefixes and one-in_progress discipline.

<!-- /​SYNC:nested-task-creation:reminder -->

Closing Reminders

IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION apply Phase 1 compression before structural enhancement; preserve semantic meaning. IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION NEVER alter YAML frontmatter, code blocks, tables, or SYNC-tag bodies during optimization. IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION keep evidence gates and mandatory workflow/​skill steps explicit and enforceable. IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION add a final review task to verify output quality and unresolved risks.