Debug Trace Skill: Instrument, Then Clean Up
Debugging by adding random console.log everywhere is how you end up shipping console.log("WHY") to production. This skill is two-phase: instrument the suspect path with 3–6 tagged logs, then strip every one of them back out once the bug is found.
Full Prompt
An installable debug-trace skill. Adds 3-6 tagged log lines at the boundary between known-correct and unknown state, then cleans every one of them up when you're done.
What It Does
- Logs at boundaries — function entry/exit, branch decisions, just before throws
- Tags every line —
[DBG-modal-save]so you can grep them all back out - Stops at 3–6 lines — more than 10 logs is noise, not signal
- Hard cleanup pass —
git grep "DBG-"must come back empty before you ship
Install in 30 Seconds
Pick your tool above and download:
- Claude Code:
~/.claude/skills/debug-trace/SKILL.md - OpenAI Codex CLI: append to
AGENTS.md - Cursor: append to
.cursorrules
Describe the symptom in one sentence, run the repro, paste the logs back, and ask for cleanup.
Why Two Phases Beat One
The single-phase version of this — "just sprinkle some logs" — ends with debug noise lingering in the repo for weeks. Tagged logs plus a guaranteed cleanup pass turn debugging into a closed loop: instrument, learn, remove, ship. No console.log("HERE") left behind.
Install once, debug without leaking artifacts.