Bug Triage
Purpose
Systematically analyze bug reports to reproduce issues, identify root causes, assess severity and impact, and determine the appropriate fix strategy and priority.
When to Use
- •Analyzing incoming bug reports
- •Investigating production issues
- •Diagnosing test failures
- •Planning bug fix work
- •Prioritizing bug backlog
Key Capabilities
- •Bug Reproduction - Create reliable steps to reproduce the issue
- •Root Cause Analysis - Identify underlying cause, not just symptoms
- •Severity Assessment - Determine impact and urgency accurately
Approach
- •Understand the Report - Read bug description and symptoms
- •Reproduce the Bug - Create minimal reproduction steps
- •Isolate the Cause - Use logs, debugging, code inspection
- •Assess Impact - Determine affected users and severity
- •Determine Fix Strategy - Quick patch vs architectural fix
- •Document Findings - Clear report for implementation team
Example
Context: Bug report "Users can't log in"
markdown
## Bug Analysis **Symptoms**: - Users see "Invalid credentials" error - Occurs only for accounts created after Oct 15 - Works fine for older accounts **Reproduction Steps**: 1. Create new user account 2. Log out 3. Attempt to log in with correct credentials 4. Observe error message **Root Cause**: - Code inspection of auth system - Found: Password hashing algorithm changed Oct 15 - Old accounts use bcrypt, new accounts use argon2 - Login validation only checks bcrypt **Location**: `src/auth/validator.py:45-67` **Impact**: - Severity: Critical (blocks all new users) - Affected: ~500 accounts created in last week - Workaround: None available **Fix Strategy**: - Update validator to check both hash types - Add migration for existing argon2 hashes - Estimated effort: 2 hours (small fix) - Testing required: Auth system regression tests **Priority**: Critical - Fix immediately **Recommended Agent**: implementer (straightforward code fix)
Best Practices
- •✅ Always try to reproduce before diagnosing
- •✅ Check logs and error messages first
- •✅ Use Grep/Glob to find related code quickly
- •✅ Document exact reproduction steps
- •✅ Consider data issues, not just code bugs
- •✅ Assess severity objectively (not all bugs are critical)
- •❌ Avoid: Assuming the cause without investigation
- •❌ Avoid: Treating all bugs as equally urgent