---
name: intermittent-issue-debugging
description: >
  Debug issues that occur sporadically and are hard to reproduce. Use monitoring
  and systematic investigation to identify root causes of flaky behavior.
---

# Intermittent Issue Debugging

## Table of Contents

- [Overview](#overview)
- [When to Use](#when-to-use)
- [Quick Start](#quick-start)
- [Reference Guides](#reference-guides)
- [Best Practices](#best-practices)

## Overview

Intermittent issues are the most difficult to debug because they don't occur consistently. Systematic approach and comprehensive monitoring are essential.

## When to Use

- Sporadic errors in logs
- Users report occasional issues
- Flaky tests
- Race conditions suspected
- Timing-dependent bugs
- Resource exhaustion issues

## Quick Start

Minimal working example:

```javascript
// Strategy 1: Comprehensive Logging
// Add detailed logging around suspected code

function processPayment(orderId) {
  const startTime = Date.now();
  console.log(`[${startTime}] Payment start: order=${orderId}`);

  try {
    const result = chargeCard(orderId);
    console.log(`[${Date.now()}] Payment success: ${orderId}`);
    return result;
  } catch (error) {
    const duration = Date.now() - startTime;
    console.error(`[${Date.now()}] Payment FAILED:`, {
      order: orderId,
      error: error.message,
      duration_ms: duration,
      error_type: error.constructor.name,
      stack: error.stack,
    });
    throw error;
  }
}

// Strategy 2: Correlation IDs
// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)
```

## Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the `references/` directory:

| Guide | Contents |
|---|---|
| [Capturing Intermittent Issues](references/capturing-intermittent-issues.md) | Capturing Intermittent Issues |
| [Common Intermittent Issues](references/common-intermittent-issues.md) | Common Intermittent Issues |
| [Systematic Investigation Process](references/systematic-investigation-process.md) | Systematic Investigation Process |
| [Monitoring & Prevention](references/monitoring-prevention.md) | Monitoring & Prevention |

## Best Practices

### ✅ DO

- Follow established patterns and conventions
- Write clean, maintainable code
- Add appropriate documentation
- Test thoroughly before deploying

### ❌ DON'T

- Skip testing or validation
- Ignore error handling
- Hard-code configuration values


---
Source attribution: aj-geddes
Original project: https://github.com/aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts/blob/3f5182cfd739fc113f4af5244a1cf342ad7f7911/skills/intermittent-issue-debugging/SKILL.md
License: MIT
License information: https://opensource.org/license/mit
Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Dave AI.

## Upstream license notice

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 AJ Geddes

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.


# Dave AI resource metadata

Creator / publisher: aj-geddes
Original project: https://github.com/aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts/blob/3f5182cfd739fc113f4af5244a1cf342ad7f7911/skills/intermittent-issue-debugging/SKILL.md
Attribution basis: Recovered original package and original project license at a pinned revision

Fields of work: Development & Engineering, Customer Support
Roles: Backend Developer, Data Engineer, DevOps / SRE, QA / Test Engineer, Technical Support
Specialties: Backend, Cross Platform, Testing
Tools: Tool not specified
Country applicability: Country not specified
Classification basis: Source catalog labels
Instruction SHA-256: be5f5397023fb429de911940a00fd3702e94b32ed52283402777d4c5568591b0
Metadata reviewed: 2026-10-27
This metadata supersedes earlier Dave AI catalog attribution. Original instruction and supporting files are preserved.