`analysis-agent`/`task-agent`/`review-agent`: use when repeated failure needs a new hypothesis or proof path; skip an initial failure with verified cause and a different action.
Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.
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---
name: repeat-failure-analysis
description: "`analysis-agent`/`task-agent`/`review-agent`: use when repeated failure needs a new hypothesis or proof path; skip an initial failure with verified cause and a different action."
---
# repeat-failure-analysis
## Registry Trigger
**Use when**
- the same path, cause, patch shape, or validator has failed twice
- a repair repeats an approach already contradicted by current evidence
**Do not use when**
- the first failure has a verified cause and a materially different next action
- prior attempts are unavailable and the current repository must be inspected first
## Skill Role
Analyze repeated failure from observable source, commands, diffs, findings, and current-task evidence. Do not create a persistent memory subsystem.
## Inputs
- attempted hypotheses and their observable results
- current diff, failing output, changed paths, and acceptance
- known owner, adjacent patterns, and validation entry points
## High-Value Rules
- Classify observed facts, rejected hypotheses, and untested hypotheses separately.
- After two failures, do not repeat the same path without new evidence.
- Search the same pattern and affected consumers before applying a local repair.
- Change at least one material dimension: hypothesis, owner, patch location,
instrumentation, reproduction, or validation method.
- Select the smallest feasible reproducer that can falsify the next hypothesis without losing the suspected mechanism.
## Anti-Patterns
- Local success substituted for evidence of the repeat failure analysis contract.
## Stop Conditions
- Stop when no new hypothesis or evidence distinguishes another attempt.
- Escalate when the next probe is destructive, privileged, production-facing,
or outside the allowed scope.
## Output Contract
- observed facts, rejected hypotheses, same-pattern impact, next hypothesis,
changed execution path, validation method, proof limits, and blocker if any
## Targeted References
| Path | Type | Load when | Do not load when | Required by | Required output |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [repeat failure](references/repeat-failure-checklist.md) | decision-checklist | the same path cause patch or validator has failed twice | this is the first verified failure or the next path is materially different | analysis-agent, task-agent, review-agent | checklist-result, residual-risk |
