/gaia-debugging

name: gaia-debugging
description: Diagnose why a GAIA question failed — extract trace, classify failure mode, and propose a fix. Use when a GAIA benchmark run reports a failed/incorrect task_id and you need to root-cause it before resubmitting.
argument-hint: "<task_id> [--results=<path>]"
allowed-tools: Bash Read mcp__plugin_ruflo-core_ruflo__memory_search mcp__plugin_ruflo-core_ruflo__memory_store mcp__plugin_ruflo-core_ruflo__agentdb_pattern-search mcp__plugin_ruflo-core_ruflo__agentdb_pattern-store

GAIA Debugging Skill

When a GAIA question fails, systematically diagnose the root cause and propose a targeted fix.

When to use

• A specific `task_id` returns the wrong answer or times out
• Pass-rate dropped between two runs and you need to find the regression
• You want to understand why a particular question class is consistently failing

Failure mode taxonomy

| Code | Mode | Symptom | Fix direction | |------|------|---------|--------------| | TG | Tool Gap | Agent lacks a required tool (no image OCR, no PDF reader) | Add tool to catalogue | | RM | Reasoning Miss | Agent has the right data but draws wrong conclusion | Improve system prompt, add CoT instruction | | EB | Extraction Bug | Answer is in the trace but `FINAL_ANSWER:` regex fails | Fix answer extraction pattern | | LI | Loop Issue | Agent loops (re-asks same tool call) and hits turn limit | Increase max-turns or add loop-detection | | DS | Dataset Shift | Ground truth differs from what web currently shows | Flag for HAL dataset audit | | AT | API Timeout | Tool call times out; agent never gets the result | Increase per-turn timeout |

Diagnostic workflow

Step 1 — Load the question trace

# Find the result for the task_id in the latest run
RESULTS=~/.cache/ruflo/gaia/results-latest.json
node -e "
  const r = JSON.parse(require('fs').readFileSync('$RESULTS'));
  const q = r.results.find(x => x.task_id === '$TASK_ID');
  console.log(JSON.stringify(q, null, 2));
"

Step 2 — Classify the failure

Look at the trace output:

1. **No tools called at all** → RM or configuration issue 2. **Tool called but returned error** → TG or AT 3. **Tool returned data, wrong answer** → RM or EB 4. **Correct answer in trace but marked wrong** → EB 5. **max-turns hit** → LI or question too hard for current model

Step 3 — Re-run with extended logging

node v3/@claude-flow/cli/bin/cli.js gaia-bench run \
  --level 1 --limit N \
  --models claude-sonnet-4-6 \
  --max-turns 20 \
  --output json

`gaia-bench run` cannot select one task: there is no `--task-id` flag (unknown flags are ignored silently). Use the smallest `--limit N` that reaches the question's position in the level's dataset order, and read only the trace for `$TASK_ID` from the output; completed questions are skipped on resume via the checkpoint file.

Step 4 — Compare reasoning strategies

• **Wrong answer despite relevant evidence:** Re-run the command from Step 3

with `--enable-critic --voting-attempts 1`. The critic reviews the answer against the evidence and can trigger one retry with revision guidance. Voting takes precedence when `--voting-attempts` exceeds 1.

• **Multi-step reasoning failure:** Try a separate run with `--decompose`.

This can split a complex question into smaller questions, solve them separately, and synthesize their answers. Compare the result for the same task with the baseline to see whether breaking up the question helps.

Step 5 — Apply targeted fix

| Failure | Action | |---------|--------| | TG — missing web_browse | Verify `gaia-tools/index.ts` exports `web_browse`; check tool registration | | TG — missing image OCR | Add `image_describe` tool call; verify `GOOGLE_AI_API_KEY` | | RM — reasoning | Add a system prompt instruction: "Before answering, list all facts you have gathered" | | EB — extraction | Test the `FINAL_ANSWER_RE` regex against the trace manually | | LI — loop | Add a tool-call deduplication guard in `gaia-agent.ts` | | AT — timeout | Set `DEFAULT_PER_TURN_TIMEOUT_MS` higher or use `--max-turns` flag |

Step 6 — Verify fix and store pattern

# Re-run (no --task-id exists; use the smallest --limit that includes the question)
node … gaia-bench run --level $LEVEL --limit N --models $MODEL --output json

# If now passing, store the pattern
npx @claude-flow/cli@latest memory store \
  --namespace gaia-debug-patterns \
  --key "fix-$FAILURE_CODE-$(date +%Y%m%d)" \
  --value "task_id=$TASK_ID, mode=$FAILURE_CODE, fix=$FIX_DESCRIPTION"

Quick reference: tool catalogue check

node -e "
  const { createDefaultToolCatalogue } = require('./v3/@claude-flow/cli/src/benchmarks/gaia-tools/index.js');
  const cat = createDefaultToolCatalogue({});
  console.log('Tools registered:', cat.definitions.map(t => t.name));
"

Expected: `web_search`, `file_read`, `web_browse`, `image_describe`, `python_exec`

Pattern storage

After resolving a debugging session, store the finding:

npx @claude-flow/cli@latest memory store \
  --namespace gaia-debug-patterns \
  --key "session-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M)" \
  --value '{"task_id":"$TASK_ID","failure_mode":"$CODE","fix":"$FIX","verified":true}'

Search for similar past failures:

npx @claude-flow/cli@latest memory search \
  --namespace gaia-debug-patterns \
  --query "extraction bug final answer regex"