ReAct

Source: hooks/ways/meta/think/strategies/react.md

Signature

keywords: investigate debug systematically figure out why what's happening trace through

Stages (cyclic, max 8 iterations)

1. Problem Reception

State what needs to be investigated. What's the observable symptom? What's the expected behavior?

2. Reasoning

"Based on what I know so far, I think the cause might be..." Form a hypothesis. Be specific enough that it's testable.

3. Action Planning

"To test this hypothesis, I should..." Plan a specific, minimal action. One action per cycle — don't shotgun.

4. Action Execution

Execute the planned action. Read a file, run a command, check a log.

5. Observation

"I observed that..." State what you actually found. Compare to your hypothesis.

6. Evaluation

Is this enough to answer the original question? - Yes → proceed to Synthesis - No → update your mental model and return to step 2 with new information - Stuck after 3 cycles → step back and reconsider assumptions

7. Synthesis

Combine observations across all cycles into a conclusion. State the root cause, the evidence chain, and the recommended fix.