--- name: investigation-loop description: Long-running Jira investigation that self-continues past natural stops until a written hypothesis with evidence citations is produced. Pairs with the cooking Stop hook and hard-stops at 10 iterations. metadata: category: user-invoked disable-model-invocation: true --- Default output: return only the result, blockers, and required evidence. Omit preambles, process narration, repeated context, confidence scores, and follow-up offers. Use at most five bullets unless a required artifact or schema needs more. # Investigation Loop Long-form investigation skill for tickets where the answer requires walking multiple linked tickets, code paths, and Confluence pages. Hand the agent a ticket and a marker file; the cooking Stop hook keeps it iterating until either (a) a written hypothesis with at least three evidence citations exists, or (b) the iteration counter hits 10. ## When to Use - A Jira (or similar) ticket whose root cause is non-obvious and requires reading code, related tickets, and historical decisions - The investigation will take 30+ minutes and you don't want to babysit it - You need a written hypothesis at the end, not just a fix — investigation is the deliverable ## When NOT to Use - The fix is obvious — just do it; don't loop - The work is mechanical (test fixing, refactor) — use `test-fix-loop` or `cross-repo-refactor` - You don't have access to the systems involved (Jira, repo, etc.) — the loop will spin without progress ## How to Run 1. Decide on the target. Have the ticket key (e.g. `RF-9421`) and any obvious entry point (a stack trace, a failing PR, a recent regression). 2. Create the marker file with the agent's PID: ```bash mkdir -p ~/.claude/cooking PID=$$ START_EPOCH=$(ps -p $PID -o lstart= | sed 's/^ *//;s/ *$//') printf '{"start_epoch": "%s"}' "$START_EPOCH" > ~/.claude/cooking/active-$PID ``` 3. Tell Claude: "Investigate JIRA `` in cook mode. Goal: written hypothesis with at least 3 evidence citations." 4. The agent reads the ticket, walks linked tickets and the relevant code, and either: - **Finds enough** — writes the hypothesis, removes the marker, exits - **Needs another cycle** — leaves the marker; the Stop hook returns exit 2 and the agent continues from where it left off 5. The skill **must** remove the marker file in a `finally`-equivalent path. ## TERMINATION Stop when ALL of these are true: - A written hypothesis exists in the conversation answering the ticket's central question - At least 3 evidence citations support the hypothesis (each citation must be a concrete reference: code at `path:line`, ticket key, doc URL, commit SHA, or test result) - The agent has explicitly stated **"I have enough to write up findings"** (verbatim trigger string), OR the iteration counter has reached 10 - The marker file is removed When termination triggers: ```bash rm -f ~/.claude/cooking/active-$PID ~/.claude/cooking/iter-$PID ``` If iteration 10 hits without a hypothesis, write a brief note describing what's missing (which file/ticket couldn't be accessed, what evidence is incomplete) and exit anyway — never run past 10. The hook hard-caps regardless. ## Anti-patterns - **Don't** reach a hypothesis and immediately try to fix the bug — this skill's deliverable is the hypothesis. Hand off to a normal coding session for the fix. - **Don't** count "I think it's probably X" as an evidence citation — citations must reference something concrete the user can verify. - **Don't** silently skip a citation requirement to terminate early — if you can't find 3 sources, hit iteration 10 honestly and exit with a "what's missing" note. - **Don't** write the hypothesis to a file in the repo — the deliverable lives in the conversation transcript. The user reads it directly. ## Verification `/cook-status` should show this loop's marker as `active` mid-run. After termination, the marker is gone and the conversation transcript contains the hypothesis with its citations. The iteration counter file should be ≤ 10 at any observation point. ## Related - Stop hook: `hooks/cooking/stop-hook.sh` - Status command: `/cook-status` - Sibling skills: `test-fix-loop`, `cross-repo-refactor`, `dreaming-consolidator` --- Source attribution: v1truv1us Original project: https://github.com/v1truv1us/ai-eng-system/blob/eaff192b6e8bcb204a1f1b132b98f748a9b4572e/skills/investigation-loop/SKILL.md License: MIT License information: https://opensource.org/license/mit Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Mega AI Hub. ## Upstream license notice MIT License Copyright (c) 2025 John Ferguson Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. # Mega AI Hub resource metadata Creator / publisher: v1truv1us Original project: https://github.com/v1truv1us/ai-eng-system/blob/eaff192b6e8bcb204a1f1b132b98f748a9b4572e/skills/investigation-loop/SKILL.md Attribution basis: Source repository record Fields of work: Product Management, Sales, Customer Support Roles: Customer Success Manager, Product Manager, Sales Development Rep (SDR), Support Agent, Technical Product Manager Specialties: Specialty not specified Tools: Confluence, Jira Country applicability: Country not specified Classification basis: Source catalog labels Instruction SHA-256: 4f2449f6847a5d472cf43b3b64b15434dae20c003474b2467bab53de9721f640