# Agent Failure Diagnosis

Diagnose AI agent failures with a reproducible capture and report, not a retry.

- Repository: https://github.com/affaan-m/ECC (294725 stars)
- Category: AI and agents
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-30
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add affaan-m/ECC --skill agent-introspection-debugging -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add affaan-m/ECC --skill agent-introspection-debugging -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add affaan-m/ECC --skill agent-introspection-debugging -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add affaan-m/ECC --skill agent-introspection-debugging -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add affaan-m/ECC`

## Description

Structured self-debugging workflow for AI agent failures using capture, diagnosis, contained recovery, and introspection reports. Use when an agent run fails and you need a reproducible diagnosis instead of a retry.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Agent Introspection Debugging

Use this skill when an agent run is failing repeatedly, consuming tokens without progress, looping on the same tools, or drifting away from the intended task.

This is a workflow skill, not a hidden runtime. It teaches the agent to debug itself systematically before escalating to a human.

## When to Activate

- Maximum tool call / loop-limit failures
- Repeated retries with no forward progress
- Context growth or prompt drift that starts degrading output quality
- File-system or environment state mismatch between expectation and reality
- Tool failures that are likely recoverable with diagnosis and a smaller corrective action

## Scope Boundaries

Activate this skill for:
- capturing failure state before retrying blindly
- diagnosing common agent-specific failure patterns
- applying contained recovery actions
- producing a structured human-readable debug report

Do not use this skill as the primary source for:
- feature verification after code changes; use `verification-loop`
- framework-specific debugging when a narrower ECC skill already exists
- runtime promises the current harness cannot enforce automatically

## Four-Phase Loop

### Phase 1: Failure Capture

Before trying to recover, record the failure precisely.

Capture:
- error type, message, and stack trace when available
- last meaningful tool call sequence
- what the agent was trying to do
- current context pressure: repeated prompts, oversized pasted logs, duplicated plans, or runaway notes
- current environment assumptions: cwd, branch, relevant service state, expected files

Minimum capture template:

```markdown
## Failure Capture
- Session / task:
- Goal in progress:
- Error:
- Last successful step:
- Last failed tool / command:
- Repeated pattern seen:
- Environment assumptions to verify:
```

### Phase 2: Root-Cause Diagnosis

Match the failure to a known pattern before changing anything.

The rest: https://github.com/affaan-m/ECC/blob/HEAD/.agents/skills/agent-introspection-debugging/SKILL.md