hyper-debug

hyper-debug

Debugging discipline tailored to this author's preferences.

Skip when

• You already know the exact line and exact fix (typo, missing import, obvious null check). Just fix it.
• The "bug" is a one-character correction that doesn't merit a hypothesis.

If you catch yourself rationalizing ("the cause is probably X, let me just try…") — that's hypothesis stacking. Run the cycle.

The cycle

1. Reproduce. Smallest possible repro. If you can't reproduce, you can't debug.
2. State the expected vs actual. Two sentences. "I expected X. I got Y."
3. Hypothesize one cause. One. Not five. Pick the most likely.
4. Predict what would prove the hypothesis right or wrong before running anything. "If hypothesis is correct, X should happen."
5. Run the experiment. Compare to prediction.
6. If wrong, hypothesize again. New hypothesis. Don't stack them.
7. Once cause is confirmed, write a failing test that captures the bug before fixing — so it doesn't regress silently later.
8. Fix. Run. Commit.

Anti-patterns

• Hypothesis stacking — trying five "fixes" at once and not knowing which one worked.
• Skipping the regression test — "the fix is obvious, no test needed." Write the test.
• Logging-only debugging — endless console.log without forming hypotheses. Logs serve a hypothesis, not the other way around.
• Reading code top-to-bottom — start at the failing assertion and walk backward, not forward.

When to escalate

If after 2-3 hypotheses you still don't know the cause, stop iterating. Re-read the error message slowly, check if your repro is actually exercising the buggy code, or take a 5-minute break — you have a wrong assumption somewhere upstream.