19. Vibe Coding for Debugging & Incident Response

What this section is for

Debugging in calm conditions is one thing. Debugging during an incident is different: you need speed, clarity, and risk control.

This section teaches how to use the model as an incident assistant without falling into “chatty guessing”:

• turn logs into ranked hypotheses,
• build minimal reproductions quickly,
• fix bugs with guardrails and regression protection,
• write postmortems that improve the system,
• set up monitoring so incidents don’t repeat.

Incident mindset: evidence first

In incidents, always prioritize:

• reduction of impact: stop the bleeding
• reproduction: make the failure happen reliably
• evidence: logs, metrics, traces, diffs
• small fixes: minimal diffs with verification

The model is a tool for thinking and drafting, not a substitute for evidence.

A practical incident workflow

1. Triage: scope, severity, timeline, last changes.
2. Hypothesize: 3–5 ranked causes based on evidence.
3. Test: run the cheapest test that distinguishes hypotheses.
4. Fix: smallest fix + regression protection.
5. Verify: tests + smoke checks + rollout safety.
6. Document: postmortem and follow-ups.

Section 19 map (19.1–19.5)

• 19.1 Turning logs into hypotheses
• 19.2 Reproducing bugs with minimal test cases
• 19.3 Fixing with guardrails: tests, assertions, and contracts
• 19.4 Postmortems: writing a useful incident report
• 19.5 Preventing recurrence: monitoring and alerts

Where to go next

• Start with 19.1
• Or jump to docs workflows (Section 20)