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Agent Skill

Surgical Patch

surgical-patch

Fix bugs and small behavior changes at the narrowest responsible layer. Use when regression proof, preserved surrounding behavior, and task-relevant tests matter.

JuliusbrusseeGeneralGoAiAnthropicCavemanClaudeClaude-codeLlmMemePrompt-engineeringSkillTokens

60K installs

juliusbrussee/caveman

by Juliusbrussee

Score

8.5

/ 10

Installs

60K

Repo Stars

106.8K

Last Updated

0d ago

Fresh

Quality Ratio

86%

Description

Verified

Language

Go

First Published

Aug 2026

Summary

The Surgical Patch agent skill guides AI agents to perform highly targeted bug fixes and minor behavior adjustments, ensuring changes are minimal, precise, and address the problem without unintended side effects. This is particularly valuable for backend developers and engineers working on complex systems where stability, preventing regressions, and precise code modifications are paramount. It is a widely adopted skill, falling into the category of a skill with 12K installs within the registry. It directs the AI to first reproduce failures or gather strong evidence, then trace symptoms to their root mechanism, and modify only the absolute narrowest layer responsible for the incorrect behavior. The skill specifically instructs the agent to preserve unrelated code and user changes, strictly avoid any cleanup, renaming, or abstraction outside the immediate fix, and only add task-relevant regression proof. Finally, it mandates running focused tests and stopping once the failure is fixed and regression proof passes.

Skill Definition

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.

How to Use

Use in O-mega

Claude Code

npx skills add juliusbrussee/caveman surgical-patch
Surgical Patch | Agent Skills | o-mega