insforge-debug

InsForge Debug

Diagnose problems in InsForge projects by combining the backend's observability primitives — logs, metrics, db-health, advisor, policies, metadata, error objects, deploy state, and AI assist. This skill provides:

1. A reference per debug primitive (one observability surface each — under references/)
2. Symptom Recipes (below) that name the primitive sequence for known reactive symptoms and proactive audits

Always use npx @insforge/cli — never install the CLI globally.

Fastest Path: AI-Assisted Triage

When the user gives a concrete description (error message, failing URL, HTTP status), hand it to the InsForge debug agent. Unlike the other primitives, this one returns suggestions, not just observations — verify the diagnosis against the primitives it cites before acting on it.

npx @insforge/cli diagnose --ai "<issue description>"

See references/ai-assisted.md for when to use this first vs when to skip, and how to verify the output.

Debug Primitives

Each primitive is one independently-queryable observability surface backed by a distinct underlying data source. Real diagnoses are compositions of primitives.

All commands run via npx @insforge/cli .... The (command) shown next to each primitive is the actual CLI command — primitive names are concept labels, not CLI subcommand names (e.g., "DB health" is diagnose db, not diagnose db-health; "Policies" is db policies, not diagnose policies).

Primitive (command)	What you see	Reference
Logs (logs <source>; diagnose logs for cross-source aggregate)	Time-stream of events from 5 backend sources (insforge.logs / postgREST.logs / postgres.logs / function.logs / function-deploy.logs)	references/logs.md
Metrics (diagnose metrics)	EC2 instance time-series (CPU / memory / disk / network) over 1h / 6h / 24h / 7d	references/metrics.md
DB health (diagnose db)	Current Postgres state via 7 named checks (connections / slow-queries / bloat / size / index-usage / locks / cache-hit)	references/db-health.md
Advisor (diagnose advisor --json)	Static-scan issues across 3 categories (security / performance / health) with ruleId / affectedObject / recommendation	references/advisor.md
Policies (db policies)	Active RLS rules from pg_policies (USING / WITH CHECK per cmd per role) — returns all policies as a dump	references/policies.md
Metadata (metadata --json)	Declarative backend state dump (auth config / tables / buckets / functions / AI models / realtime channels)	references/metadata.md
Error objects (no command — read SDK / HTTP response)	SDK error envelope + HTTP status — the routing table from a client-visible error to the right log source	references/error-objects.md
Deploy state (deployments list + deployments status <id> --json + logs function-deploy.logs)	Frontend (Vercel) deployment history + per-deploy metadata, plus edge function deploy logs	references/deploy-state.md
AI assist (diagnose --ai "<description>")	LLM agent that combines the other primitives — returns a diagnosis with suggestions	references/ai-assisted.md

Symptom Recipes

Each recipe is a primitive call sequence with one-line "look for X" at each step. Command syntax, flags, and deep interpretation are in the per-primitive references above.

Recipe: SDK returned { data: null, error: { code, message } }

1. error-objects — read code/message/details. If code starts with PGRST*, route by prefix using the table in the reference.
2. logs (matching source per error-objects routing) — find the error timestamp, get the full backend-side context.
3. db-health (connections, locks, slow-queries) — only if the error suggests DB issue (PostgREST timeout, lock conflict).

Recipe: HTTP 4xx/5xx response on a specific request

1. error-objects — use the HTTP status routing table to pick the log source (each status has a distinct path; 429 is special).
2. logs (right source for that status) — find the failing request line and error.
3. metrics — only for 5xx patterns spanning multiple endpoints, to confirm system-wide load issue.

Recipe: RLS access issue (403 on write, or empty result on read)

Same bug, two surfacings. Writes (INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE) fail loudly with 403. Reads (SELECT) fail silently with an empty array — PostgREST filters denied rows out instead of returning 403, so the request looks successful with zero rows. Diagnosis path is the same except step 1 only applies to the 403 variant.

1. logs (postgREST.logs) — 403 variant only: find the policy violation event with table and role context. Empty-result variant: skip — no error is logged for silently-filtered rows.
2. policies — list policies for that table; walk USING / WITH CHECK against the actual request and the JWT claim used.
3. metadata — verify auth config (which claim feeds auth.uid() / requesting_user_id(); for third-party auth like Clerk/Auth0, is the provider registered as a JWT issuer?).
4. db query (db query "<sql>") — empty-result variant only: confirm rows that should be visible actually exist by querying as service role (not as the user): npx @insforge/cli db query "SELECT id, user_id FROM <table>". Distinguishes "RLS filtered everything" from "no matching data exists".

Recipe: Login fails / OAuth callback errors / token expired

1. logs (insforge.logs) — find auth errors with timestamp and provider context.
2. metadata — verify the provider is enabled, redirect URLs match the callback URL exactly (protocol + host + path).

Recipe: Edge function runtime error / timeout

1. logs (function.logs) — get the error stack and execution context.
2. metadata — confirm the function exists and status: "active".
3. (If needed) npx @insforge/cli functions code <slug> — inspect the source for obvious issues.

Recipe: functions deploy failed

1. deploy-state (function-deploy.logs) — find the build/push error.
2. metadata — confirm whether the function ended up in the active list (partial-deploy detection).

Recipe: deployments deploy failed (Vercel)

1. deploy-state (deployments list + status <id> --json) — read status, metadata.webhookEventType, and envVarKeys.
2. Local npm run build — reproduce the same error locally for faster iteration.

Recipe: Single slow query / one endpoint slow

1. logs (postgres.logs) — find the query text and timestamp.
2. db-health (slow-queries, index-usage) — confirm it's in pg_stat_statements; check for missing index.
3. policies — if it's an RLS-gated table, verify the policy isn't adding hidden joins.

Recipe: All responses slow / high CPU/memory (active incident)

1. metrics (--range 1h) — confirm system-wide pressure (CPU / memory / disk).
2. db-health — DB is the most common bottleneck; check connections, locks, slow-queries.
3. logs (diagnose logs aggregate) — error patterns across sources at the spike timestamp.
4. advisor (--severity critical) — pre-existing known issues that may explain the degradation.

Recipe: Realtime channel won't connect / messages missing

1. logs (insforge.logs) — WebSocket errors and subscription failures.
2. metadata — verify the channel pattern matches what the client subscribes to, enabled: true.
3. policies — RLS on the underlying table (realtime delivers row changes; RLS gates which rows the subscriber sees).

Recipe: 429 rate limit

1. error-objects — confirm 429 status. No logs are recorded for 429s; no Retry-After header is returned. Don't waste time grepping logs.
2. metrics (--range 1h) — overall backend load context.
3. Fix is always client-side: debounce, batch, exponential backoff, eliminate retry loops.

Recipe: Gateway timeout (502 / 503 / 504) on a specific URL

Route by URL subsystem before drilling:

URL pattern	Drill into
/api/database/records/...	logs (postgREST.logs → postgres.logs) + db-health (locks, slow-queries)
/functions/<slug>	logs (function.logs) — function may be crash-looping
/api/auth/...	logs (insforge.logs)
Any path during system-wide spike	metrics (--range 1h)

Recipe: Pre-launch / proactive audit

Requires Platform login (npx @insforge/cli login). Not available when the project is linked via --api-key — fall back to db-health + policies + metadata for a manual audit in that case.

1. advisor — full scan, then --severity critical first, then warnings.
2. advisor (--category security) — focus on security issues; cross-verify with policies (RLS coverage) and metadata (auth config, public buckets, secret presence).
3. advisor (--category performance) — cross-verify with db-health (slow-queries, index-usage, bloat).
4. advisor (--category health) — cross-verify with metrics (resource trends over 7d).
5. After fixes, re-run advisor and confirm isResolved: true for each addressed ruleId.

Recipe: Don't know where to start

1. ai-assisted (diagnose --ai "<error or URL>") — get a starting hypothesis.
2. Verify by re-checking the primitives the diagnosis names. Trust the primitive observations over the suggestion.