Debug Pattern — Problem

Pattern: Debug
Component: problem.md
Version: 1.2 | Updated: 2026-07-29

Statement

Failures get shotgun patches: first plausible cause wins, intermittent bugs “clear” after restarts, and no regression proof exists for the pre-fix behavior.

Measurable symptoms

Symptom	How you detect it
Patch-first thrash	Multiple speculative fixes before a hypothesis list
Works on my machine	Fix never verified in the failing environment
Evidence destroyed	Restarts wipe logs needed for RCA
No regression net	Same defect returns within a sprint

Root cause

Debugging under pressure rewards action over isolation. Without ranked hypotheses and a failing-env gate, teams optimize for looking busy.

What breaks when this pattern is skipped

SEVs recur with the same fingerprint
Hotfixes expand blast radius
Observability exists but is never consulted before coding

Non-goals of this pattern

Not a feature delivery track
Not an excuse to skip tests “until later”
Not automatic production mutation via MCP

Failures — recovery table
Workflow — ordered steps
Checklist — exit criteria

Changelog

1.2 (2026-07-29): Debug problem page expanded with skip-impact and operator symptoms.