Binary-search a bug across recent changes

Coding & Development debugginggitincident

When a bug appeared 'sometime in the last week' and you have N suspects, binary search beats reading every diff. This prompt structures the search.

Prompt

I have a bug. Help me binary-search the cause across recent commits.

Symptom: {{SYMPTOM}}
Last known good version/commit: {{LAST_GOOD}}
First known bad version/commit: {{FIRST_BAD}}
Reproducible test: {{REPRO_STEPS}}

Produce:
1. A git bisect plan with the exact commands.
2. 3 likely categories of cause given the symptom (e.g., dependency change, env-var change, race condition).
3. For each category, 2 fast "smell tests" I can run before completing the bisect.
4. A rollback command if I need to ship a fix in the next hour.

Variables to fill in

{{SYMPTOM}}
{{LAST_GOOD}}
{{FIRST_BAD}}
{{REPRO_STEPS}}

How to use this prompt

Copy the prompt above (Copy button on the top-right).
Replace each {{VAR}} with your own value. Variables: {{SYMPTOM}}{{LAST_GOOD}}{{FIRST_BAD}}{{REPRO_STEPS}}.
Paste it into one of the recommended tools below.
Iterate: tighten constraints in the prompt if the output is generic.

Why this prompt is structured this way

The prompt is split into explicit steps because LLMs do better when the path is named, not implied. Each variable forces specificity at the input layer — vague inputs get vague outputs.

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