# investigating-guidelines

> Guidelines for debugging and investigating issues. Use when troubleshooting errors, unexpected behavior, or diagnosing problems.

- Author: eitanpo
- Repository: eitanpo/dotfiles
- Version: 20260131172644
- Stars: 2
- Forks: 1
- Last Updated: 2026-02-06
- Source: https://github.com/eitanpo/dotfiles
- Web: https://mule.run/skillshub/@@eitanpo/dotfiles~investigating-guidelines:20260131172644

---

---
name: investigating-guidelines
description: Guidelines for debugging and investigating issues. Use when troubleshooting errors, unexpected behavior, or diagnosing problems.
---

# Investigating Guidelines

Guidelines for root cause analysis. Skip for obvious issues with clear fixes.

## Key Principles

1. **Root cause over symptoms** - Don't fix what you see; find why it happens. A fix upstream often eliminates multiple issues.

2. **Verify with actual data** - Check current state (run commands, read logs/configs) before proposing solutions. Don't reason from assumptions.

3. **Research before inventing** - For common problems, search how others solved it. Validate approaches against proven solutions.