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Coding & Software

Debug an Error Message

Paste an error and the code around it to get ranked causes, the smallest fix and a quick check to confirm the diagnosis.

Designed for general-purpose AI assistantsPublished November 2026

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Help me debug an error. Work from the evidence I give you and do not guess past it.

Language or tool: {{language or tool}}
What I was trying to do: {{goal}}

Error message or stack trace:
{{error message}}

Relevant code or configuration:
{{code}}

What I have already tried: nothing yet

Answer in this structure:
1. What the error means, in plain language.
2. The three most likely causes, ranked, each with the evidence in my message that points to it.
3. For the top cause, the smallest change that would fix it, shown as code.
4. A quick check I can run to confirm the diagnosis before I change anything.
5. What other information would help if none of these causes fit.

4 required fields are empty and will stay as a {{placeholder}} in the copied text.

How to use it

  1. Paste the full error, including the stack trace, rather than a summary. The first and last lines are usually the most useful.
  2. Include the smallest piece of code that reproduces the problem, and mention versions if the error looks environment-related.
  3. Run the confirmation check from step 4 before changing code, so you fix the cause instead of the symptom.
  4. If the answer does not fit, reply with the result of the check and what step 5 asked for.

Example output

Illustrative only. Real answers depend on your input and the assistant you use.

1. What it means: Python could not find a key named "user_id" in the dictionary the function received, so it raised KeyError at the line that reads it.

2. Likely causes:
- The caller passes the dictionary before the "user_id" field is added (the traceback shows the call happens inside load_session, before enrich_user runs).
- The upstream API returns the field as "userId" for some accounts.
- The dictionary is empty because the earlier request failed silently.

3. Smallest fix for the top cause: call enrich_user(session) before build_report(session), or read the value with session.get("user_id") and handle None explicitly.

4. Check: print(session.keys()) just before the failing line. If "user_id" is missing there, the order of the calls is the problem.

5. If this does not fit, send me the output of that print and the body of enrich_user.

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