# RootCauseAnalysis

Structured incident investigation using Five Whys, Fishbone, blameless Postmortem...

- Repository: https://github.com/danielmiessler/LifeOS (19669 stars)
- Category: Engineering
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-28
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add danielmiessler/LifeOS --skill RootCauseAnalysis -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add danielmiessler/LifeOS --skill RootCauseAnalysis -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add danielmiessler/LifeOS --skill RootCauseAnalysis -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add danielmiessler/LifeOS --skill RootCauseAnalysis -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Structured incident investigation using Five Whys, Fishbone, blameless Postmortem, Fault Tree, Kepner-Tregoe, and FMEA, traces failures to systemic root causes rather than blaming humans. USE WHEN root cause, RCA, 5 whys, fishbone, postmortem, incident analysis, fault tree, why does this keep failing, blameless, recurring bug. NOT FOR systemic loops (use SystemsThinking).

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

# RootCauseAnalysis Skill

RootCauseAnalysis investigates incidents and recurring failures with causal methods (Five Whys, Fishbone, blameless Postmortem, Fault Tree, Kepner-Tregoe) and traces them to systemic root causes rather than to a person to blame. Apollo/RealityCharting and FMEA are supporting methods documented in `Foundation.md` and `MethodSelection.md`, not separate intents.

## Ideal State

- The method fits the failure class, as the situation table under Intent Routing maps it, and a non-trivial incident is written as a Postmortem with the other methods as its investigation tools.
- Every diagnosis is evidence-backed and blameless, with 3+ actionable systemic contributing factors rather than a single blame target. It ends at causes that are both systemic and within authority to change, never at a person to blame, and each corrective action prevents a class of recurrence rather than the latest trigger.
- Every conclusion that rests on a fact the request supplied cites that fact, checked at its source, and a caller's hypothesis is never taken as fact.
- Decisions are judged using the information available at the time.
- What the evidence cannot support is disclosed as a gap or a hypothesis, never filled with invented causes, probabilities or comparisons, and never padded with invented factors to meet the 3+ target.
- The analysis delivered is finished; no sub-work is still running when it is handed over.

## Intent Routing

The rest: https://github.com/danielmiessler/LifeOS/blob/HEAD/LifeOS/install/skills/RootCauseAnalysis/SKILL.md