Bug Triage Pack

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name: bug-triage-pack
description: "Triage a raw bug report into something a team can act on — clean repro steps, a defensible severity/priority, environment, likely area/owner, and duplicate check. Use when asked to triage this bug, set severity and priority, is this a P1, or clean up this bug report for the backlog. Produces the normalized repro, a severity and priority with the reasoning (impact × frequency × workaround), the environment/metadata, a suspected component and owner queue, and a duplicate/related-issue check — flagging when info is missing rather than guessing."
---

# Bug Triage Pack

A bug backlog is only as good as its triage — and most bugs arrive as "it's broken" with no repro, a panicked severity, and no idea who should look. This turns a raw report into a triaged item: reproducible steps, a severity and priority you can defend (not vibes), the environment that matters, a suspected area and owner queue, and a check for whether it's a duplicate — asking for what's missing instead of inventing it.

## What This Skill Produces

- **Normalized repro** — clear, numbered steps; expected vs. actual; the minimal path to reproduce
- **Severity & priority** — each with reasoning (impact × frequency × workaround availability), not a gut number
- **Environment & metadata** — version, platform, browser/OS, user/role, first-seen, frequency
- **Suspected area & owner queue** — where it likely lives and who should take it next
- **Duplicate/related check** — is this the same as a known issue, and what to link
- **Missing-info flags** — what the reporter must supply before it's actionable

## Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:
- **The raw report** — whatever came in (a Slack message, a customer ticket, a screenshot description)
- **Your severity/priority scale** — what P0–P3 / S1–S4 mean here (else a sensible default is used and labelled)
- **Environment details** — version, platform, who hit it, how often
- **Known issues (optional)** — a list to dedupe against

## Framework: Triage You Can Defend

1. **Repro or it's not a bug yet.** No reliable steps → the first action is "needs repro," not a severity.
2. **Severity ≠ priority.** Severity is how bad the impact is; priority is when we fix it (a rare-but-catastrophic bug and a constant-but-cosmetic one differ on both axes).
3. **Score, don't feel.** Impact (data loss > broken flow > cosmetic) × frequency (all users > edge case) × workaround (none > easy) → a defensible level.
4. **Route it.** Suspected component and the queue/owner it should go to — triage that doesn't route just moves the pile.
5. **Dedupe.** Check against known issues; a linked duplicate is worth more than a fifth copy.
6. **Flag gaps, don't guess.** Missing environment or repro is a request to the reporter, not an assumption.

## Output Format

### Bug: [title] · **Severity [Sx]** · **Priority [Px]**
**Why this level:** impact [x] × frequency [y] × workaround [z].

### Repro
1. … → **Expected:** … · **Actual:** …

### Environment
| Version | Platform | User/role | First seen | Frequency |

### Routing
- Suspected area: [component] · Suggested queue/owner: [team].

### Duplicate / related
- [links, or "no known duplicate"].

### ⚠ Missing before it's actionable
- [what the reporter must add].

## Quality Checks
- [ ] Repro steps are clear and include expected vs. actual (or "needs repro" is the flagged first action)
- [ ] Severity and priority are distinct and each justified by impact × frequency × workaround
- [ ] Environment/metadata is captured (or flagged missing)
- [ ] A suspected area and owner queue are proposed
- [ ] A duplicate/related check is done
- [ ] Missing information is requested, not invented

## Anti-Patterns
- **A severity with no reasoning** — "this is a P1" because it feels urgent.
- **Conflating severity and priority** — they answer different questions.
- **Assigning a level without repro** — triage a phantom and you fix nothing.
- **No routing** — a triaged bug with no owner queue is still stuck.
- **Inventing environment/repro** the reporter never gave.

## Example Trigger Phrases
- "Triage this bug and set severity and priority: [paste]"
- "Is this a P1? Here's the report."
- "Clean up this bug for the backlog with repro steps and an owner."
- "Normalize this customer bug report and check if it's a duplicate."