Bug Triage

Goal

Convert a raw bug report into a prioritized triage summary that includes severity rating, clear reproduction steps, expected vs. actual behavior, affected scope, and a recommended next action.

Trigger

Invoke when a new bug report is submitted and needs to be structured, prioritized, and assigned before entering the development queue.

Steps

1. 1

   Analyze the raw bug report below and extract all available signal — user description, environment details, error messages, screenshots mentioned, and any logs: $bug_report

   • □Raw report has been fully read
   • □Key symptoms and context are identified

   Analyze the raw bug report below and extract all available signal — user description, environment details, error messages, screenshots mentioned, and any logs:
   
   $bug_report

2. 2

   Assign a severity level (Critical / High / Medium / Low) based on user impact, data risk, and frequency. Justify the rating in one sentence referencing specific details from the report.

   • □Severity level is one of the four tiers
   • □Justification cites a specific detail from the report
3. 3

   Write clear, numbered reproduction steps starting from a clean state. Each step should be a single atomic action. Flag any steps that are ambiguous or missing from the original report.

   • □Steps start from a known baseline state
   • □Ambiguous or missing steps are explicitly flagged
4. 4

   State the expected behavior and the actual behavior observed, each in one concise sentence. Then summarize the affected scope — which users, platforms, features, or data are impacted.

   • □Expected and actual behavior are clearly contrasted
   • □Affected scope identifies at least one dimension (user segment, platform, or feature)
5. 5

   Identify any likely root cause hypotheses based on the report (e.g. race condition, null pointer, config error). List 1–3 hypotheses ranked by plausibility, each with a brief rationale.

   • □At least one hypothesis is provided
   • □Each hypothesis has a rationale tied to report evidence
6. 6

   Produce a recommended next action: assign to a team or role, suggest an immediate workaround if applicable, and flag if escalation or a hotfix is warranted based on severity.

   • □A responsible team or role is named
   • □Escalation need is explicitly addressed

Output format

Return a structured triage summary with clearly labeled sections: Severity (with justification), Reproduction Steps (numbered list), Expected vs. Actual Behavior, Affected Scope, Root Cause Hypotheses (ranked list), and Recommended Next Action. Use plain language suitable for both engineers and non-technical stakeholders.