Commits and Conflicts

Paul’s Hint of the Week · #4

A Debugging Protocol for When the AI Is Stuck

· 3 min read

Inspired by Episode 7: Just One More Attempt

Two failures with the same error means stop retrying. A step-by-step reset that turns a retry loop into a diagnosis.

What’s inside

  1. The goal
  2. Before you start
  3. Step by step
  4. Step 1: Call the stop
  5. Step 2: Capture the evidence
  6. Step 3: Restart with a brief
  7. Step 4: Hypotheses before code
  8. Step 5: Run the cheapest check first
  9. Step 6: Fix one cause, then prove it
  10. Step 7: Set a budget
  11. Prompts to steal
  12. Checklist
  13. Common mistakes

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