Skills Development Surgical Patching Method

Surgical Patching Method

v20260905
surgical-patch
A disciplined methodology for fixing bugs and small behavioral changes with minimal impact. It involves tracing symptoms to the narrowest responsible mechanism, implementing changes only at that layer, and adding highly focused regression proofs to ensure surrounding functionality remains intact. Ideal for critical systems requiring maximum stability.
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Overview

Surgical patch

Reproduce failure first when economical; otherwise capture strongest available evidence.

  • Trace symptom to responsible mechanism.
  • Change narrowest layer that owns incorrect behavior.
  • Preserve unrelated behavior and user changes.
  • Avoid cleanup, renaming, and abstraction outside fix.
  • Add only regression proof relevant to task.

Run focused proof plus nearest affected gate. Stop when failure is fixed and regression proof passes.

Info
Category Development
Name surgical-patch
Version v20260905
Size 798B
Updated At 2026-09-06
Language