Bug Reporting Excellence
TITLE: [Component] fails [Condition] causing [Impact] DESCRIBE: Expected behavior → Actual behavior → Steps to reproduce INCLUDE: Environment, severity, screenshots/logs, business impact ISOLATE: Narrow down conditions (browser, user, amount thresholds) ONE BUG = ONE REPORT (don't combine issues)
Bug Report Formula:
[Component] Issue Title
Severity: Critical/High/Medium/Low Environment: Production/Staging/Dev
Expected Behavior
What should happen
Actual Behavior
What actually happens (with error messages)
Steps to Reproduce
- Step one
- Step two
- Observe issue
Impact
How this affects users/business
Critical Success Factors:
Reproducible steps (100%) Environment info (100%) Business impact stated (90%) Screenshots or logs (80%) Quick Reference Card Severity Levels Level Definition Examples Critical System down, data loss, security DB deleted, payments broken, credentials exposed High Major feature broken, many users Can't checkout, search broken, dashboard fails Medium Partial break, workaround exists Filter broken (refresh works), slow export Low Cosmetic, rare edge case Button wraps on mobile, tooltip wrong color Title Formula
❌ Bad: "Checkout broken" ✅ Good: "Payment fails with Visa cards when order total > $1000"
Pattern: [Component] fails [Condition] causing [Impact]
Essential Information Environment Details Browser: Chrome 120.0.6099.109 (Windows) OS: Windows 11 Pro URL: https://example.com/checkout Date/Time: 2025-10-17 14:23 UTC User: test@example.com (ID: 12345) Request ID: abc-123-def-456
Supporting Evidence
Error Messages:
{ "error": "Payment service unavailable", "code": "GATEWAY_TIMEOUT", "requestId": "abc-123-def-456" }
Console Logs:
[ERROR] PaymentGateway: Connection timeout after 30000ms at PaymentGateway.charge (gateway.js:145)
Example: Excellent Bug Report
[Checkout] Payment processing times out for orders > $1000
Severity: High Environment: Production Affected Users: ~15% of premium purchases
Expected Behavior
Payment completes within 5 seconds regardless of amount.
Actual Behavior
For orders above $1000, payment gateway times out after 30 seconds. User sees "Payment failed" error. Order not created.
Steps to Reproduce
- Add items totaling $1,050 to cart
- Proceed to checkout
- Enter payment: Visa 4532 1234 5678 9010
- Click "Place Order"
- Wait 30+ seconds
- Observe timeout error
Environment
- Browser: Chrome 120 (Windows 11)
- User: test@example.com
- Request ID: abc-123-def-456
Evidence
Console error: PaymentGateway timeout: 30000ms exceeded
Network: /api/checkout: 30.14s (timeout)
Impact
- Lost revenue: ~$15K/week from failed orders
- 23 support tickets this week
- Affects 15% of orders over $1000
Additional Context
Started after Oct 15 deployment (v2.3.0) Possibly related to PR #456 (fraud check)
Anti-Patterns ❌ Bad Problem ✅ Good "Checkout is broken" What doesn't work? "Payment button doesn't respond when clicked" "I saw an error" No reproduction steps Full steps with conditions "Page loads slowly" No specifics "Dashboard takes 12s to load (should be <3s)" Multiple bugs in one Can't track separately One report per bug Agent Integration // Automated bug triage const triage = await Task("Triage Bug", { title: 'Payment fails for orders > $1000', description: bugDescription, steps: reproductionSteps }, "qe-quality-analyzer");
// Returns: { severity, priority, component, suggestedAssignee, relatedIssues }
// Duplicate detection const dupeCheck = await Task("Check Duplicates", { bugReport: newBug, similarityThreshold: 0.85 }, "qe-quality-analyzer");
// Bug report enhancement const enhanced = await Task("Enhance Report", { originalReport: userSubmittedBug, addMissingInfo: true, identifyRootCause: true }, "qe-production-intelligence");
Agent Coordination Hints Memory Namespace aqe/bug-reports/ ├── triaged/ - Bug triage results ├── duplicates/ - Duplicate detection ├── patterns/ - Recurring bug patterns └── root-cause/ - Root cause analyses
Fleet Coordination const bugFleet = await FleetManager.coordinate({ strategy: 'bug-investigation', agents: [ 'qe-quality-analyzer', // Triage and categorize 'qe-flaky-test-hunter', // Check if test-related 'qe-production-intelligence' // Check production logs ], topology: 'parallel' });
Related Skills technical-writing - Clear bug documentation exploratory-testing-advanced - Finding bugs sherlock-review - Root cause investigation Remember
Your bug report is the starting point for someone else's work. Make it complete (all info needed), clear (anyone can follow), concise (no noise), and actionable (developer knows next step).
Good bug reports = Faster fixes = Better product = Happier users