mcpbeat

Debug

openai/debug

Investigate stuck runs and execution failures by tracing Symphony and Codex logs with issue/session identifiers; use when runs stall, retry repeatedly, or fail unexpectedly.

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on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository
npx skills add https://github.com/openai/symphony --skill debug

What it tells the agent to use

found in the instruction text
Grep reads your files

The instruction itself

9 sections, as written by the author

Debug

Goals

  • Find why a run is stuck, retrying, or failing.
  • Correlate Linear issue identity to a Codex session quickly.
  • Read the right logs in the right order to isolate root cause.

Log Sources

  • Primary runtime log: log/symphony.log
  • Default comes from SymphonyElixir.LogFile (log/symphony.log).
  • Includes orchestrator, agent runner, and Codex app-server lifecycle logs.
  • Rotated runtime logs: log/symphony.log*
  • Check these when the relevant run is older.

Correlation Keys

  • issue_identifier: human ticket key (example: MT-625)
  • issue_id: Linear UUID (stable internal ID)
  • session_id: Codex thread-turn pair (<thread_id>-<turn_id>)

elixir/docs/logging.md requires these fields for issue/session lifecycle logs. Use

them as your join keys during debugging.

Quick Triage (Stuck Run)

  • Confirm scheduler/worker symptoms for the ticket.
  • Find recent lines for the ticket (issue_identifier first).
  • Extract session_id from matching lines.
  • Trace that session_id across start, stream, completion/failure, and stall

handling logs.

  • Decide class of failure: timeout/stall, app-server startup failure, turn

failure, or orchestrator retry loop.

Commands

# 1) Narrow by ticket key (fastest entry point)
rg -n "issue_identifier=MT-625" log/symphony.log*

# 2) If needed, narrow by Linear UUID
rg -n "issue_id=<linear-uuid>" log/symphony.log*

# 3) Pull session IDs seen for that ticket
rg -o "session_id=[^ ;]+" log/symphony.log* | sort -u

# 4) Trace one session end-to-end
rg -n "session_id=<thread>-<turn>" log/symphony.log*

# 5) Focus on stuck/retry signals
rg -n "Issue stalled|scheduling retry|turn_timeout|turn_failed|Codex session failed|Codex session ended with error" log/symphony.log*

Investigation Flow

  • Locate the ticket slice:
  • Search by issue_identifier=<KEY>.
  • If noise is high, add issue_id=<UUID>.
  • Establish timeline:
  • Identify first Codex session started ... session_id=....
  • Follow with Codex session completed, ended with error, or worker exit

lines.

  • Classify the problem:
  • Stall loop: Issue stalled ... restarting with backoff.
  • App-server startup: Codex session failed ....
  • Turn execution failure: turn_failed, turn_cancelled, turn_timeout, or

ended with error.

  • Worker crash: Agent task exited ... reason=....
  • Validate scope:
  • Check whether failures are isolated to one issue/session or repeating across

multiple tickets.

  • Capture evidence:
  • Save key log lines with timestamps, issue_identifier, issue_id, and

session_id.

  • Record probable root cause and the exact failing stage.

Reading Codex Session Logs

In Symphony, Codex session diagnostics are emitted into log/symphony.log and

keyed by session_id. Read them as a lifecycle:

  • Codex session started ... session_id=...
  • Session stream/lifecycle events for the same session_id
  • Terminal event:
  • Codex session completed ..., or
  • Codex session ended with error ..., or
  • Issue stalled ... restarting with backoff

For one specific session investigation, keep the trace narrow:

  • Capture one session_id for the ticket.
  • Build a timestamped slice for only that session:
  • rg -n "session_id=<thread>-<turn>" log/symphony.log*
  • Mark the exact failing stage:
  • Startup failure before stream events (Codex session failed ...).
  • Turn/runtime failure after stream events (turn_* / ended with error).
  • Stall recovery (Issue stalled ... restarting with backoff).
  • Pair findings with issue_identifier and issue_id from nearby lines to

confirm you are not mixing concurrent retries.

Always pair session findings with issue_identifier/issue_id to avoid mixing

concurrent runs.

Notes

  • Prefer rg over grep for speed on large logs.
  • Check rotated logs (log/symphony.log*) before concluding data is missing.
  • If required context fields are missing in new log statements, align with

elixir/docs/logging.md conventions.

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take openai/debug from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.