cd-symptom-page

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Generate symptom pages for the CD migration guide following the standard template

bdfinst By bdfinst schedule Updated 3/3/2026

name: cd-symptom-page description: Generate symptom pages for the CD migration guide following the standard template user_invocable: true

CD Symptom Page Generator

Role: implementation. This skill generates new content files following the symptom page template.

Generate a new symptom page for the "Symptoms" section of the CD migration guide.

Constraints

  1. Follow the template exactly. Do not invent new sections or skip required ones.
  2. Be concise. Generate the page and report validation results. No preambles.
  3. Validate before finishing. Run all validation checks in the instructions before considering the work complete.

Instructions

  1. Ask the user which symptom to write if not already specified. Ask which subdirectory it belongs in: testing/, deployment/, flow/, or visibility/.
  2. Read a canonical example at content/en/docs/symptoms/deployment/fear-of-deploying.md to calibrate tone, depth, and structure.
  3. Identify related anti-pattern pages from the list below. Every cause MUST link to an existing anti-pattern page.
  4. Generate the page following the template below.
  5. Validate before finishing:
    • Run /grammar-check on the generated file to catch and fix any prohibited punctuation.
    • Verify all **Read more:** links point to existing anti-pattern pages.
    • Verify all links in "How to narrow it down" point to existing pages.
    • Confirm "Common causes" has 2-5 subsections.
    • Confirm description is under 160 characters.

Template

---
aliases:
  - /docs/symptoms/[slug]/
title: "[Descriptive Title - What the Team Experiences]"
linkTitle: "[Short display title]"
description: >
  [One-to-two sentence description under 160 characters. Describe the observable symptom
  and its immediate impact.]
tags:
  - [tag-1]
  - [tag-2]
---

## What you are seeing

[2-3 paragraphs describing what a team member observes day to day. Be vivid and specific.
Use present tense. Paint a picture the reader recognizes from their own experience.
The goal is for the reader to say "that's us."]

## Common causes

### [Cause Name - Matches Anti-Pattern Title]

[2 paragraphs explaining how this anti-pattern produces the symptom the reader is
experiencing. Be specific about the mechanism. First paragraph describes the cause,
second paragraph describes the healthier alternative or what changes when the
anti-pattern is addressed.]

**Read more:** [Anti-Pattern Title](../../anti-patterns/[category]/[slug]/)

### [Cause Name 2]

[Same structure as above]

**Read more:** [Anti-Pattern Title](../../anti-patterns/[category]/[slug]/)

[2-5 cause subsections total. Each must link to an existing anti-pattern page.]

## How to narrow it down

1. **[Diagnostic question in bold]** [Brief explanation of what the answer tells you.
   Ends with a recommendation to] Start with
   [Anti-Pattern Title](../../anti-patterns/[category]/[slug]/).
2. **[Next diagnostic question]** [Same pattern.]
[One numbered item per cause, in a logical diagnostic order - start with the most
common or easiest to identify.]

Content Guidelines

Tone

  • Direct, specific, and assertive but not preachy
  • Write as a practitioner advising a peer, not a consultant lecturing a client
  • State what happens and why - let the reader draw conclusions
  • Use "you" and "the team" naturally
  • Symptom pages are diagnostic: help the reader identify what is going wrong and where to look

Depth per section

  • What you are seeing: 2-3 paragraphs. Vivid enough that the reader recognizes their own situation.
  • Common causes: 2 paragraphs per cause. First describes the mechanism, second the alternative.
  • How to narrow it down: One numbered item per cause. Each is a yes/no diagnostic question.

Style rules

  • Use sentence-style capitalization in headings (only capitalize first word and proper nouns).
  • Keep paragraphs to 3-4 sentences maximum.
  • Use active voice.
  • Section heading is ## What you are seeing (lowercase "you"), not "What You Are Seeing".
  • Run /grammar-check before finishing to catch prohibited punctuation (endashes, emdashes, hyphens used as dashes).

Key differences from anti-pattern pages

  • Symptom pages do NOT have category, risk_level, or weight in front matter.
  • Symptom pages do NOT have a {{% pageinfo %}} block.
  • Symptom pages have aliases in front matter for redirect from old URL structure.
  • The title should describe what the team experiences (e.g., "The Team Is Afraid to Deploy"), not the root cause.

Subdirectory Selection

Subdirectory When to use
testing/ Symptoms related to test suite health, test reliability, test effectiveness
deployment/ Symptoms related to deployment frequency, deployment risk, release process
flow/ Symptoms related to work throughput, cycle time, bottlenecks, WIP
visibility/ Symptoms related to production observability, team health, knowledge gaps

Available Anti-Pattern Pages (for cross-referencing)

Every **Read more:** link and every "How to narrow it down" link MUST point to one of these pages. Use relative links from the symptom subdirectory: ../../anti-patterns/[category]/[slug]/

Architecture:

  • architecture/distributed-monolith - Distributed Monolith
  • architecture/premature-microservices - Premature Microservices
  • architecture/tightly-coupled-monolith - Tightly Coupled Monolith

Branching & Integration:

  • branching-integration/integration-deferred - Integration Deferred
  • branching-integration/long-lived-feature-branches - Long-Lived Feature Branches

Monitoring & Observability:

  • monitoring-observability/blind-operations - Blind Operations

Organizational & Cultural:

  • organizational-cultural/governance-process/cab-gates - CAB Gates
  • organizational-cultural/planning/deadline-driven-development - Deadline-Driven Development
  • organizational-cultural/team-dynamics/missing-product-ownership - Missing Product Ownership
  • organizational-cultural/team-dynamics/pressure-to-skip-testing - Pressure to Skip Testing
  • organizational-cultural/team-dynamics/thin-spread-teams - Thin-Spread Teams
  • organizational-cultural/planning/velocity-as-individual-metric - Velocity as Individual Metric

Pipeline & Infrastructure:

  • pipeline/manual-deployments - Manual Deployments
  • pipeline/missing-deployment-pipeline - Missing Deployment Pipeline
  • pipeline/snowflake-environments - Snowflake Environments

Team Workflow:

  • team-workflow/horizontal-slicing - Horizontal Slicing
  • team-workflow/knowledge-silos - Knowledge Silos
  • team-workflow/monolithic-work-items - Monolithic Work Items
  • team-workflow/push-based-work-assignment - Push-Based Work Assignment
  • team-workflow/unbounded-wip - Unbounded WIP
  • team-workflow/undone-work - Undone Work

Testing & Quality:

  • testing/code-coverage-mandates - Code Coverage Mandates
  • testing/inverted-test-pyramid - Inverted Test Pyramid
  • testing/manual-regression-testing-gates - Manual Regression Testing Gates
  • testing/manual-testing-only - Manual Testing Only

Available Tags

Choose 1-4 tags from this vocabulary:

  • architecture
  • batch-size
  • deployment-automation
  • environment-consistency
  • integration-frequency
  • observability
  • process-gates
  • team-dynamics
  • test-strategy
  • work-decomposition

Output

Write the generated page to content/en/docs/symptoms/[subdirectory]/[slug].md where [slug] is the symptom name in kebab-case.

Install via CLI
npx skills add https://github.com/bdfinst/cd-migration --skill cd-symptom-page
Repository Details
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