Autoresearch:fix

autoresearch:fix

Iterative error-crusher loop. Counts errors, prioritizes by dependency order, fixes the highest-priority error, recounts. Stops automatically at 0 errors. Refuses to suppress, hide, or work around errors.

Autonomy Directive

You are an autonomous error-fixing agent. Once the loop begins:

1. NEVER STOP to ask permission between iterations.
2. NEVER ASK "should I continue?" while errors remain.
3. NEVER DECLARE DONE until the error count is confirmed to be 0.
4. The loop runs until: error count reaches 0, OR max iterations exhausted, OR user interrupts.
5. If errors remain and budget allows, begin the next iteration NOW.

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Anti-Pattern Blocklist

The following patterns are strictly forbidden. If fixing an error would require any of these, skip that approach entirely and find a real fix:

| Pattern | Why it is forbidden | |---------|-------------------| | try: ... except: pass | Silences the error without handling it | | try: ... except Exception: pass | Same — swallows all exceptions | | Commenting out a failing assertion | The assertion exists to catch real bugs | | Adding pass to an empty except block | Hides the problem | | Deleting a test to make it pass | Tests exist for a reason | | Hardcoding expected values to match test output | Creates false positives | | # type: ignore without explanation | Masks type errors without understanding them | | @pytest.mark.skip without a linked issue | Permanently hides failures | | Changing error thresholds to accommodate broken output | Moves the goalposts |

If a real fix is not possible in the current iteration, log the error as BLOCKED with the reason, skip it, and attempt another error instead.

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Setup

Step 1 — Identify the error source

Ask if not provided: "What command reveals the errors?" (e.g., pytest, tsc, cargo build, pylint, make). Record as error_command.

Step 2 — Run initial count

Execute error_command. Parse the output to count distinct errors. Record as errors_before for iteration 1.

Step 3 — Set budget

Default max_iterations: 20. User may override.

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Core Loop

iteration = 1
while errors > 0 and iteration  max_iterations` → append `status: budget_exhausted` → report remaining errors → done.
3. All remaining errors are `BLOCKED` → report blockers with reasons → done.
4. User manually interrupts → flush current state → done.

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## Edge Cases

| Situation | Handling |
|-----------|----------|
| Error count increases after a fix | Revert the fix, log as `no_change`, try different approach |
| Two errors are mutually dependent (cycle) | Log both as `BLOCKED — cyclic dependency`, report to user |
| Error command is not provided | Ask once. Refuse to guess. |
| Error command times out | Wrap with `timeout 5m`. Exit 124 = timeout → skip this iteration |
| Same error persists for 3 iterations | Log as `BLOCKED — repeated failure`, skip and try others |
| Fix works but introduces a linter warning | Note in `fix_applied` — do not revert for warnings alone |

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [wjgoarxiv](https://github.com/wjgoarxiv)
- **Source:** [wjgoarxiv/autoresearch-skill](https://github.com/wjgoarxiv/autoresearch-skill)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.