Imported from paperclipai/paperclip (
.agents/skills/diagnose-why-work-stopped/SKILL.md). Install upstream withnpx skills add paperclipai/paperclip --skill diagnose-why-work-stopped. Copyright stays with the author.
Diagnose Why Work Stopped
Use Fix Failed Paperclip Run. It owns the current workflow: find the first causal failure, reproduce it red, repair the shared contract, test second-order effects, verify the real workflow, and deliver a PR with passing checks. A normal request to fix stopped work continues through that workflow without a separate plan-approval gate.
If the user or calling workflow explicitly asks for diagnosis only or requires approval before implementation, perform the investigation and safety analysis within that scope. For example, a Terminal-Bench diagnosis child does not override the loop's board approval boundary. Keep the next action and its owner explicit.
For issue-tree diagnosis, read the current doc/execution-semantics.md, inspect the
relevant subtree and recent repairs, and classify non-progressing nodes:
- Genuine wait: a named human or external dependency must act.
- Agent-actionable but unrouted: authorized useful work lacks a live path.
- Already covered: existing work owns the next action; do not duplicate it.
Preserve these three invariants together:
- Productive work has a real next action and owner.
- Only genuine blockers stop work, including approval, credentials, and budget.
- Recovery is bounded and cannot recursively recover itself.
Frame any repair as a general behavioral contract, check it against a productive counterexample, and follow the new skill through the authorized finish line. Historical task links and private incident access are not required.
