Debugging

Debugging is the systematic process of finding and resolving defects in software. It involves reading error messages, tracing execution, isolating the cause, and applying a fix — then verifying the fix did not break anything else.

AI changes the debugging workflow significantly. Instead of searching Stack Overflow for an error message, you paste the error, your code, and a description of what you expected into the AI and ask it to explain what is wrong. This works well for common errors. For subtler bugs — race conditions, state management issues, off-by-one errors in business logic — the AI's explanation is a starting point, not a final answer.

A critical vibe coding skill: knowing when the AI is confidently wrong about a diagnosis. If the AI's proposed fix does not work after one or two iterations, step back, read the error message yourself, add console logs, and reason from first principles before asking again.