# Crash Investigation Checklist (for your AI agent)

Hand this to your agent after a crash, or save it in your workshop's `records` folder and say "follow the crash checklist".

Guide: https://www.classified.llc/ai-guides/modding-crash-investigation

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## 1. Preserve the evidence (before anything relaunches the game)

- [ ] Ask the user what they were doing at the moment of the crash, and roughly when.
- [ ] Find the newest crash files. Check the game folder (`logs`, `crashes`), `Documents\My Games\<game>`, `Documents\<game>`, `%LOCALAPPDATA%\<game>`, `C:\ProgramData\<game>`, `%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps`, and the mod manager's or mod loader's log folder.
- [ ] Check Windows Event Viewer (Windows Logs > Application) for "Application Error" (event 1000) and "Windows Error Reporting" (event 1001) at the crash time.
- [ ] Copy everything to `crash-archive\<date>_<short-description>\` with a note of what the user was doing.

## 2. Classify by timing

- [ ] Startup, before the main menu: a loading problem. Suspect missing requirements, duplicate shared libraries, mods that ship the game's own files, or a version mismatch.
- [ ] Loading a save or starting a new game: mod data clashing with the save, or start-of-game scripts.
- [ ] Mid-play: a specific trigger. Use what the user was doing.
- [ ] After a long session: look for memory or video memory warnings.

## 3. Read

- [ ] Read the last 200 lines of each log. Quote the line that matters.
- [ ] If there is a crash dump, read it (set up a dump reader if needed) and find which mod's code was running.
- [ ] Search the logs for: "dependency", "missing", "version", "could not load", "exception", "out of memory".

## 4. Check the usual suspects

- [ ] Every enabled mod's requirements are installed, enabled, and loaded before it.
- [ ] No mod ships copies of the game's own files.
- [ ] No shared library is loaded twice from two different mods.
- [ ] The load order matches each mod's readme.
- [ ] Every mod supports the installed game version.

## 5. If still unknown: test in halves

- [ ] Back up the mod list.
- [ ] Turn off half of the optional mods, keeping dependency groups together. Launch. Record the result in notes.
- [ ] Repeat on the half that still crashes until one mod, or one pair, is left.

## 6. Report

- [ ] Evidence first, then the conclusion, then confidence: "confirmed by test", "likely", or "guess".
- [ ] Offer fixes from least effort: avoid the trigger, change a setting, fix the order or duplicate, update or swap the mod, turn it off for this playthrough.
- [ ] Offer to draft a bug report for the mod author: what happened, the exact error, game version, mod list, and steps to reproduce.
- [ ] Ask before changing anything.