All categories/Code and debugging
Level Starter · Error Debugging Stack
Error triage: hypotheses before patches
Paste an error and the usual reply is 'try this', and it still fails.
Prompt
Help me locate this error. No fix code yet.
Error text:
{{error}}
Environment: {{env}}
What triggered it: {{action}}
Already tried: {{tried}}
Requirements:
1. Explain the error line by line: which line is the root cause, which are downstream.
2. Give 3 hypotheses ordered by likelihood, each with 'if this is right, what else should I see'.
3. Give a minimal verification step: one command or one small snippet that confirms or kills it.
4. Only after I confirm a hypothesis, give the fix. For now, verification steps only.What to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- {{error}}: the full stack, not just the last line
- {{env}}: OS, runtime version, dependency versions
- {{action}}: the smallest reproducible sequence
- {{tried}}: stops it re-suggesting what you ruled out
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- Banning 'give me the patch first' is the whole value here.
- Paste the full stack; from the last line alone most answers are guesses.