SKILL.md
$27
Debug Primitives
Each primitive is one independently-queryable observability surface backed by a distinct underlying data source. Real diagnoses are compositions of primitives.
All commands run via npx @insforge/cli .... The (command) shown next to each primitive is the actual CLI command — primitive names are concept labels, not CLI subcommand names (e.g., "DB health" is diagnose db, not diagnose db-health; "Policies" is db policies, not diagnose policies).
Primitive (command)
What you see
Reference
Logs (logs <source>; diagnose logs for cross-source aggregate)
Time-stream of events from 5 backend sources (insforge.logs / postgREST.logs / postgres.logs / function.logs / function-deploy.logs)
Metrics (diagnose metrics)
EC2 instance time-series (CPU / memory / disk / network) over 1h / 6h / 24h / 7d
DB health (diagnose db)
Current Postgres state via 7 named checks (connections / slow-queries / bloat / size / index-usage / locks / cache-hit)
Advisor (diagnose advisor --json)
Static-scan issues across 3 categories (security / performance / health) with ruleId / affectedObject / recommendation
Policies (db policies)
Active RLS rules from pg_policies (USING / WITH CHECK per cmd per role) — returns all policies as a dump
Metadata (metadata --json)
Declarative backend state dump (auth config / tables / buckets / functions / AI models / realtime channels)
Error objects (no command — read SDK / HTTP response)
SDK error envelope + HTTP status — the routing table from a client-visible error to the right log source
Deploy state (deployments list + deployments status <id> --json + logs function-deploy.logs)
Frontend (Vercel) deployment history + per-deploy metadata, plus edge function deploy logs
AI assist (diagnose --ai "<description>")
LLM agent that combines the other primitives — returns a diagnosis with suggestions
Symptom Recipes
Each recipe is a primitive call sequence with one-line "look for X" at each step. Command syntax, flags, and deep interpretation are in the per-primitive references above.
Recipe: SDK returned { data: null, error: { code, message } }
- error-objects — read code/message/details. If code starts with
PGRST*, route by prefix using the table in the reference.
- logs (matching source per error-objects routing) — find the error timestamp, get the full backend-side context.
- db-health (
connections,locks,slow-queries) — only if the error suggests DB issue (PostgREST timeout, lock conflict).
Recipe: HTTP 4xx/5xx response on a specific request
- error-objects — use the HTTP status routing table to pick the log source (each status has a distinct path; 429 is special).
- logs (right source for that status) — find the failing request line and error.
- metrics — only for 5xx patterns spanning multiple endpoints, to confirm system-wide load issue.
Recipe: RLS access issue (403 on write, or empty result on read)
Same bug, two surfacings. Writes (INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE) fail loudly with 403. Reads (SELECT) fail silently with an empty array — PostgREST filters denied rows out instead of returning 403, so the request looks successful with zero rows. Diagnosis path is the same except step 1 only applies to the 403 variant.
- logs (
postgREST.logs) — 403 variant only: find the policy violation event with table and role context. Empty-result variant: skip — no error is logged for silently-filtered rows.
- policies — list policies for that table; walk USING / WITH CHECK against the actual request and the JWT claim used.
- metadata — verify auth config (which claim feeds
auth.uid()/requesting_user_id(); for third-party auth like Clerk/Auth0, is the provider registered as a JWT issuer?).
- db query (
db query "<sql>") — empty-result variant only: confirm rows that should be visible actually exist by querying as service role (not as the user):npx @insforge/cli db query "SELECT id, user_id FROM <table>". Distinguishes "RLS filtered everything" from "no matching data exists".
Recipe: Login fails / OAuth callback errors / token expired
- logs (
insforge.logs) — find auth errors with timestamp and provider context.
- metadata — verify the provider is enabled, redirect URLs match the callback URL exactly (protocol + host + path).
Recipe: Edge function runtime error / timeout
- logs (
function.logs) — get the error stack and execution context.
- metadata — confirm the function exists and
status: "active".
- (If needed)
npx @insforge/cli functions code <slug>— inspect the source for obvious issues.
Recipe: functions deploy failed
- deploy-state (
function-deploy.logs) — find the build/push error.
- metadata — confirm whether the function ended up in the active list (partial-deploy detection).
Recipe: deployments deploy failed (Vercel)
- deploy-state (
deployments list+status <id> --json) — readstatus,metadata.webhookEventType, andenvVarKeys.
- Local
npm run build— reproduce the same error locally for faster iteration.
Recipe: Single slow query / one endpoint slow
- logs (
postgres.logs) — find the query text and timestamp.
- db-health (
slow-queries,index-usage) — confirm it's inpg_stat_statements; check for missing index.
- policies — if it's an RLS-gated table, verify the policy isn't adding hidden joins.
Recipe: All responses slow / high CPU/memory (active incident)
- metrics (
--range 1h) — confirm system-wide pressure (CPU / memory / disk).
- db-health — DB is the most common bottleneck; check
connections,locks,slow-queries.
- logs (
diagnose logsaggregate) — error patterns across sources at the spike timestamp.
- advisor (
--severity critical) — pre-existing known issues that may explain the degradation.
Recipe: Realtime channel won't connect / messages missing
- logs (
insforge.logs) — WebSocket errors and subscription failures.
- metadata — verify the channel pattern matches what the client subscribes to,
enabled: true.
- policies — RLS on the underlying table (realtime delivers row changes; RLS gates which rows the subscriber sees).
Recipe: 429 rate limit
- error-objects — confirm 429 status. **No logs are recorded for 429s; no
Retry-Afterheader is returned.** Don't waste time grepping logs.
- metrics (
--range 1h) — overall backend load context.
- Fix is always client-side: debounce, batch, exponential backoff, eliminate retry loops.
Recipe: Gateway timeout (502 / 503 / 504) on a specific URL
Route by URL subsystem before drilling:
URL pattern
Drill into
/api/database/records/...
logs (postgREST.logs → postgres.logs) + db-health (locks, slow-queries)
/functions/<slug>
logs (function.logs) — function may be crash-looping
/api/auth/...
logs (insforge.logs)
Any path during system-wide spike
metrics (--range 1h)
Recipe: Pre-launch / proactive audit
Requires Platform login (npx @insforge/cli login). **Not available when the project is linked via --api-key** — fall back to db-health + policies + metadata for a manual audit in that case.
- advisor — full scan, then
--severity criticalfirst, then warnings.
- advisor (
--category security) — focus on security issues; cross-verify with policies (RLS coverage) and metadata (auth config, public buckets, secret presence).
- advisor (
--category performance) — cross-verify with db-health (slow-queries,index-usage,bloat).
- advisor (
--category health) — cross-verify with metrics (resource trends over7d).
- After fixes, re-run advisor and confirm
isResolved: truefor each addressedruleId.
Recipe: Don't know where to start
- ai-assisted (
diagnose --ai "<error or URL>") — get a starting hypothesis.
- Verify by re-checking the primitives the diagnosis names. Trust the primitive observations over the suggestion.