Network Issue Debugging Methodology
An evidence-driven, falsification-first playbook for tracking down network, streaming and protocol bugs where the obvious cause is usually wrong.
Dev & CodingAdvanced★ 1,323⑂ 212AI score 8/10Last updated: Aug 8, 2026
What it does
- Triggers on symptoms like ECONNRESET, HTTP/2 RST_STREAM INTERNAL_ERROR, stalled SSE/long-polling streams, "fails after exactly N seconds", CDN/proxy/CGNAT idle timeouts, TLS certificate-verification errors, and client-side proxy/VPN/TUN misrouting — and forces an evidence → falsifier → decisive experiment sequence instead of guesswork.
- Ships an 8-step investigation checklist: scope the symptom, verify the premise, gather per-hop evidence, frame ≥3 hypotheses with explicit refuters and target layer boundaries, run a layered-isolation experiment, add env-gated instrumentation, counter-review, fix and re-verify, then document the wrong turns.
- Includes a reverse-proxy log-reading table (
duration,bytes_read,Content-Length,status=0) that separates Cloudflare 524/522 caused by body upload time from genuine backend processing timeouts. - Catalogs 15 cognitive traps: circumstantial convergence, field-semantic confusion, green health checks that only certify one plane, CNAME rules overriding explicit PROXY rules, banners/OUIs mistaken for device identity, and more.
Who it's for
- Backend engineers, SREs and platform/infra folks who debug production incidents themselves
- Teams running multi-hop stacks (CDN → LB → reverse proxy → app → upstream)
- Anyone operating SSE/streaming APIs or large-body POST endpoints
- Leads who want consistent, teachable incident write-ups
Example uses
- "Our SSE stream dies at exactly 130s" → Claude designs three paths differing by one hop (via CDN,
--resolvestraight to origin, server loopback) and pins the idle timeout to a specific layer. - "6 MB upload returns Cloudflare 524" → inspect Caddy JSON logs;
bytes_read < Content-Lengthwithstatus=0proves an upload timeout, not a slow backend. - "One site returns ERR_CONNECTION_CLOSED on my laptop only" → walk the proxy/TUN checklist: fake 198.18.x.x DNS answers, route interface, hostname-vs-IP through the proxy, and CNAME-suffix DIRECT rules beating an explicit PROXY rule.
· · · Install guide · · ·
Try it now, no install
Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.
Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/daymade/claude-code-skills/HEAD/debugging-network-issues/SKILL.md What I want: (describe your task here)
If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.
↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.
Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
- Download the ZIP with the button below.
- In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
- Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
Install in Claude Code
Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code
Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart. Copy the debugging-network-issues folder from the GitHub repo daymade/claude-code-skills into my ~/.claude/skills/debugging-network-issues/. When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.
Install with a command instead
git clone https://github.com/daymade/claude-code-skills.git /tmp/ccs && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r /tmp/ccs/debugging-network-issues ~/.claude/skills/⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.
- Open a terminal.
- Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/daymade/claude-code-skills.git - Create the skills folder if needed:
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills - Copy this skill:
cp -r claude-code-skills/debugging-network-issues ~/.claude/skills/ - Verify the bundled
references/docs (case studies, instrumentation patterns, packet-capture recipes) came along:ls ~/.claude/skills/debugging-network-issues - Restart Claude Code and paste a real symptom (e.g. "HTTP/2 INTERNAL_ERROR after 130.9s") to confirm the skill activates.
- Substitute the example container names and paths (Caddy,
<new-api-container>, etc.) with your own infrastructure before running any commands.
View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT