Triage a Sentry issue into a minimal fix brief
Cursor or Claude Code follows a SKILL.md from a Sentry issue link: stack, breadcrumbs, and release — then writes a minimal repro and first-fix PR brief without catch-all error swallowing.
A sentry-triage skill, a repro steps block a human can run in five minutes, and a PR brief that names the failing path and forbids empty catch blocks as the default fix.
- 1
Paste a redacted production issue
Tune breadcrumb and release steps on a real error. Training only on synthetic stacks misses source-map and release-tag gaps.
- 2
Commit the skill near observability docs
Link from RUNBOOK or AGENTS.md for tasks tagged bug or sentry. On-call should load the same file as feature devs.
- 3
Reject catch-all PRs
If the agent’s brief only says handle errors better, send it back through the skill with the anti-patterns section quoted.
The prompt to paste
Write SKILL.md for triaging a Sentry issue into a minimal reproduction and a first-fix pull request brief. This is fix preparation, not closing the issue in Sentry without a code change.
Issue context (paste when using):
[Sentry issue URL or id, title, first seen / last seen, release version, environment]
[stack trace excerpt, breadcrumb trail, user impact count if shown — redact PII]
Repository context:
[repo layout, how to run app locally, test command]
[sentry SDK and release tagging pattern]
SKILL.md sections:
1. Purpose — turn noisy stack traces into a bounded fix with repro evidence; no silent catch-all patches.
2. When to use — new or regressed issues above [threshold] events or on-call tagged; when not to use — known ignored noise without a tracking ticket.
3. Hard rules:
- Redact emails, IPs, auth tokens from pasted events; never commit customer PII into repro docs.
- Do not propose catch (e) {} or blanket Sentry.ignoreErrors without naming the specific false-positive case.
- Do not mark fixed until a test or repro steps prove the failing path.
4. Required inputs: issue link, release/commit sha if known, and whether the error is client, server, or worker.
5. Triage steps the agent must follow and document:
- Summarize failure in one sentence: what threw, where, under what request/job shape.
- Map stack frames to repo files; flag if symbolicated frames missing or source maps stale.
- From breadcrumbs: list the last user/server actions before crash (max 5 bullets).
- Hypothesis list (max 3): each with confidence low/med/high and what evidence would falsify it.
- Minimal repro: numbered steps, expected vs actual, smallest data fixture — write [cannot repro locally] if stuck and name what is missing.
- First-fix brief for PR: scope (files likely touched), proposed change type (guard, null check, retry, config), test to add, out of scope.
6. Anti-patterns section: swallowing errors, logging without rethrow when contract requires failure, fixing symptoms in middleware while root cause is downstream.
7. Two example prompts: null reference in API handler vs timeout in background job.
8. Done means: repro or explicit blocker documented, PR brief ready, no catch-all fix suggested without alternative, Sentry issue id in brief header.
Rules:
- Use frame paths from the issue paste only; [confirm path] if repo layout differs.
- Do not claim a fix is verified without naming command run and result.
- Markdown only.High event volume does not mean high user impact. The skill should separate noisy benign errors from customer-blocking paths before proposing code changes.
Sample case written by Hidden Logic Lab. Not affiliated with Cursor or Claude Code or Sentry.
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