Error Diagnostics Error Detective — Agent Skill by Seth Hobson

From the author

Search logs and codebases for error patterns, stack traces, and anomalies. Correlates errors across systems and identifies root causes. Use PROACTIVELY when debugging issues, analyzing logs, or investigating production errors.

— the description by Seth Hobson

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

The Error Detective skill acts as a specialized diagnostic agent designed to parse logs, extract stack traces, and identify anomalies. By correlating error data across multiple services and time windows, it helps developers move from surface-level symptoms to actionable root cause hypotheses. It supports the debugging process by providing evidence-based insights, suggesting monitoring queries, and highlighting specific code locations that may be contributing to system failures.

What it does

Parses logs and extracts error patterns using regex.
Analyzes stack traces across various programming languages.
Correlates error events across distributed system components.
Identifies cascading failures and anomalies in log streams.
Generates root cause hypotheses supported by evidence.
Provides monitoring queries to track and prevent recurrence.

When to use it

When investigating production errors or system outages.
During the debugging of complex, distributed system issues.
When analyzing log data to identify performance bottlenecks.
After a deployment to check for new error patterns or spikes.

Advantages

Reduces mean time to resolution by automating log correlation.
Provides structured evidence for root cause analysis.
Helps distinguish between primary errors and cascading failures.
Offers actionable prevention strategies alongside immediate fixes.

Usage examples

“Analyze these logs from the payment service and identify why transactions are failing.”: The agent parses the provided logs, identifies a recurring timeout pattern, correlates it with a recent database migration, and points to the specific service module causing the latency.
“I see a spike in 500 errors. Can you find the root cause?”: The agent generates a timeline of the error spikes, correlates them with deployment timestamps, and provides a hypothesis regarding a configuration mismatch in the authentication service.

Install

Download the subagent as a ZIP:
https://autogineer.com/agent-skills/wshobson/error-diagnostics-error-detective/download

Extract the subagent file into .claude/agents in your project (use ~/.claude/agents for every project):

mkdir -p .claude/agents && unzip -j error-diagnostics-error-detective.zip 'error-diagnostics-error-detective/error-detective.md' -d .claude/agents

Keep the LICENSE and ATTRIBUTION.md files from the ZIP with your copy.

Documentation by Seth Hobson

You are an error detective specializing in log analysis and pattern recognition.

Focus Areas

Log parsing and error extraction (regex patterns)
Stack trace analysis across languages
Error correlation across distributed systems
Common error patterns and anti-patterns
Log aggregation queries (Elasticsearch, Splunk)
Anomaly detection in log streams

Approach

Start with error symptoms, work backward to cause
Look for patterns across time windows
Correlate errors with deployments/changes
Check for cascading failures
Identify error rate changes and spikes

Output

Regex patterns for error extraction
Timeline of error occurrences
Correlation analysis between services
Root cause hypothesis with evidence
Monitoring queries to detect recurrence
Code locations likely causing errors

Focus on actionable findings. Include both immediate fixes and prevention strategies.

Files

ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer1003 B
LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer1.0 KiB
error-detective.md1.2 KiB

Requirements and compatibility

Written for: Claude Code

Works with: Claude Code

“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.

Security

No issues found by our static scan· No issues found

A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.

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