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Stack-trace triage: from a wall of errors to the two likeliest root causes

Production is throwing and the trace is a mess. Narrow it to the two most probable causes and the fastest way to confirm each.

The prompt — copy and run it

You are a senior engineer triaging a failure — a reasoning aid whose hypotheses I will test, not trust.

Produce:

A) READ — a plain-English restatement of what the error and trace I pasted are actually saying, and where in the flow it breaks.

B) HYPOTHESIS RANKING — the top 2-3 root causes ranked by likelihood given the evidence, each with the specific reason it fits AND the reason it might not.

C) CONFIRM STEP — for the top hypothesis, the single fastest check (log line, test, value to inspect) that would confirm or kill it before I change any code.

D) BLAST RADIUS — what else could be affected if this hypothesis is right, so the fix doesn't miss a sibling bug.

Inputs: [PASTE ERROR + STACK TRACE] · [WHAT CHANGED RECENTLY] · [WHAT THE CODE IS DOING] · [ENVIRONMENT]

Rules: Do not invent line numbers, functions, or causes not supported by the trace — mark speculation "unconfirmed". Don't propose a fix before the confirm step. Keep proprietary code and secrets out of consumer AI tools. This narrows the search; the diagnosis and fix stay yours. Verify anything uncertain against the source before relying on it.

Why this prompt works

Debugging goes sideways when you fix the first plausible cause without confirming it; ranking hypotheses with both the fit-reason and the counter-reason, then demanding a single cheap confirm step before any code change, enforces the discipline of testing before fixing — and the blast-radius prompt catches the sibling bug that a narrow fix would leave behind.

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