debugging-and-error-recovery

75 / 100 · Review before installing

Check before installing. Some of what it can do is expected: a coding skill usually runs build and test commands.

By addyosmani/agent-skills (GitHub) · coding · 117,315 stars · scanned at commit 39b723c

Guides systematic root-cause debugging. Use when tests fail, builds break, something that worked yesterday broke, behavior doesn't match expectations, or you encounter any unexpected error. Use when you need to figure out what broke and why — a systematic approach to finding and fixing the root cause rather than guessing. Use when asked what broke, why a test started failing, or why code throws, even when the diff, the function, or the stack trace is pasted inline and the cause looks obvious fr…

Works with any agent that supports SKILL.md skills.

What this skill can do

Runs commands on your computer

The author does not mention this. Expected for a coding skill.

Found in 3 places.

skills/debugging-and-error-recovery/SKILL.md, line 78npm test -- --grep "test name"
skills/debugging-and-error-recovery/SKILL.md, line 104git bisect start
skills/debugging-and-error-recovery/SKILL.md, line 160npm test -- --grep "specific test"

Connects to the internet

The author does not mention this. It runs automatically when the plugin is installed.

Found in 16 places.

hooks/SDD-CACHE.md, line 3Cross-session citation cache for [`source-driven-development`](../skills/source-driven-development/SKILL.md). Skips redundant `WebFetch` calls without weakening
hooks/SDD-CACHE.md, line 20"matcher": "WebFetch",
hooks/SDD-CACHE.md, line 32"matcher": "WebFetch",

Show 13 more

hooks/SDD-CACHE.md, line 57The stored body is not raw HTML — `WebFetch` post-processes each response through a model using the caller's prompt, so what we cache is one agent's reading of
hooks/SDD-CACHE.md, line 65| `PreToolUse WebFetch` | If an entry exists, sends a `HEAD` request with `If-None-Match` / `If-Modified-Since`. On `304`, blocks the fetch and returns the cach
hooks/SDD-CACHE.md, line 66| `PostToolUse WebFetch` | Captures the response, issues a `HEAD` request to record the current `ETag` / `Last-Modified`, and stores `{url, prompt, etag, last_m
hooks/SDD-CACHE.md, line 76- Cache hit: `WebFetch` is blocked via exit code 2. Claude Code delivers the hook's stderr payload back to the agent as a tool error — this is the intended sign
hooks/SDD-CACHE.md, line 77- Cache miss or stale: `WebFetch` runs normally; the result is stored for next time.
hooks/SDD-CACHE.md, line 1216. Verify the second `WebFetch` is blocked and the cached content is returned (visible in the session transcript as a tool error with `[sdd-cache]` prefix).
hooks/SDD-CACHE.md, line 157- **Every cache write costs an extra HEAD.** Claude Code doesn't expose the response headers that `WebFetch` already received, so the post hook re-queries the o
hooks/sdd-cache-post.sh, line 82HEAD_OUT=$(curl -sI -L --max-time 5 "$URL" 2>/dev/null | tr -d '\r' || true)
hooks/sdd-cache-pre.sh, line 71STATUS=$(curl -sI -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" \
hooks/sdd-cache-pre.sh, line 78dbg "not 304, letting WebFetch proceed"
hooks/sdd-cache-pre.sh, line 85dbg "cache HIT, blocking WebFetch with ${#CONTENT} bytes of cached content"
hooks/sdd-cache-pre.sh, line 97printf 'content below as if WebFetch had just returned it.\n\n'
hooks/sdd-cache-pre.sh, line 99printf 'Original WebFetch prompt: "%s". If your angle differs, judge\n' "$ORIGINAL_PROMPT"

Downloads and installs other software

The author does not mention this. It runs automatically when the plugin is installed.

Found in 1 place.

hooks/session-start.sh, line 19echo '{"hookSpecificOutput": {"hookEventName": "SessionStart", "additionalContext": "agent-skills: jq is required for the session-start hook but was not found o

Safer alternatives

Low-risk skills in the same category (coding) that look related. Check that one does what you need.

Install

Paste this into your terminal. It downloads exactly the version we scanned, not whatever is newest.

if [ -e ~/.agents/skills/'debugging-and-error-recovery' ] || [ -L ~/.agents/skills/'debugging-and-error-recovery' ]; then echo 'A skill folder named debugging-and-error-recovery already exists — not replacing it' >&2; false; else d=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --quiet --filter=blob:none --no-checkout 'https://github.com/addyosmani/agent-skills' "$d" && git -C "$d" checkout --quiet '39b723ceebf81474d0557c1fecd01eddab585563' -- 'skills/debugging-and-error-recovery' && mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills && cp -R "$d"/'skills/debugging-and-error-recovery' ~/.agents/skills/'debugging-and-error-recovery' && rm -rf "$d"; fi

Codex reads ~/.agents/skills directly. For Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Antigravity or OpenCode, also link it. For Claude Code: ln -s ~/.agents/skills/'debugging-and-error-recovery' ~/.claude/skills/'debugging-and-error-recovery' (other agents: ~/.cursor/skills, ~/.copilot/skills, ~/.gemini/skills, ~/.gemini/config/skills, ~/.config/opencode/skills). Or install through the finder skill, which does both.

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Score history

Date	Version	Score
2026-11-14	`39b723c`	75
2026-11-08	`301b02b`	75
2026-11-06	`301b02b`	75