Let the agent hunt down a hard bug overnight
A developer on Hacker News writes that he routinely leaves Codex running for a few hours overnight to debug. He points to one specific case: you have a deterministic unit test that reproduces the bug through the front door of your app, but no idea why it happens. The agent can then add debug prints and test hypotheses one at a time. He does not describe a concrete bug, or how often it works.
Done with CodexModerate
What was done
A developer on Hacker News writes that he routinely leaves Codex running for a few hours overnight to debug. He points to one specific case: you have a deterministic unit test that reproduces the bug through the front door of your app, but no idea why it happens. The agent can then add debug prints and test hypotheses one at a time. He does not describe a concrete bug, or how often it works.
How to do it
- Paste the prompt into the tool, and replace the text in brackets with your own.
- Read the answer through. Do not send, delete or publish anything until you have seen it yourself.
- Check the original before you trust a figure, a name or a date.
Try it with Codex
The test [test name] fails every time and reproduces the bug, but I do not know why. Find the cause. Add debug prints, test one hypothesis at a time and write down what each round showed in [log file]. Do not change the test. Show me your hypotheses before you change production code. You are done when you have found the cause, the test passes and every temporary print has been removed.
Replace text in brackets with your own.
Hacker News ·