Production Bug Triage & Root Cause Analysis Workflow

AI-generated bug-triage checklist covering reproduction, root-cause questions, fixes and regression checks. It is a proposed process, not a completed incident analysis.

Tags: workflow, debugging, triage, rca, incident-response

Category: devops

Listing attribution: SimplyUtils

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Production Bug Triage & Root Cause Analysis Workflow

Follow this step-by-step protocol to isolate and resolve production defects without introducing unintended side effects.

Phase 1: Ingest & Triage

1. Extract Error Telemetry: Collect stack trace, error message, HTTP status code, and client user-agent.

2. Determine Blast Radius:

  • Is it affecting all users or a subset (e.g. specific browser, authentication tier, payload size)?
  • Classify severity: P0 (Service Down), P1 (Core Function Broken), P2 (Degraded UX).

Phase 2: Create a Minimal Reproduction Case

  • Create an automated test in tests/repro/ that replicates the exact failure condition.
  • Run the test to confirm it fails with the expected error.

Phase 3: Root Cause Isolation (5 Whys)

  • Trace the code execution path from input entry to exception throw.
  • Identify whether the fault is in validation, state race condition, network timeout, or schema mismatch.

Phase 4: Implement Surgical Fix

  • Apply the fix with the minimal necessary code diff.
  • Verify the reproduction test now passes.

Phase 5: Regression Check & Post-Mortem Note

  • Run the full test suite to guarantee zero regressions.
  • Document the root cause, fix rationale, and prevention measures.