https://whatproblem.dev/blog Notes on requirements, bug reports and the cost of a vague issue. en-gb Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:44:57 +0000 https://whatproblem.dev/blog/mermaid-diagram-not-rendering-in-a-github-issue https://whatproblem.dev/blog/mermaid-diagram-not-rendering-in-a-github-issue Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 An escaped arrow head is the one that gives you an error box. A br tag, a diagram too big to read and custom fill colours fail more quietly. How to tell which one you have. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/do-thinking-tokens-count-as-output-tokens https://whatproblem.dev/blog/do-thinking-tokens-count-as-output-tokens Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Yes, and the provider documentation now says so outright: output_tokens is the inclusive billing total. The number people actually get wrong is on the input side. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/does-github-retry-failed-webhooks https://whatproblem.dev/blog/does-github-retry-failed-webhooks Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 GitHub does not automatically retry a failed webhook delivery. What that means for your handler, how manual redelivery works, and how to catch what you drop. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/how-to-stop-a-github-bot-replying-to-its-own-comments https://whatproblem.dev/blog/how-to-stop-a-github-bot-replying-to-its-own-comments Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Why checking the sender login is not enough, and the defence that always holds: a hidden marker in your own comment body, checked before anything else. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/how-to-detect-bot-created-github-issues https://whatproblem.dev/blog/how-to-detect-bot-created-github-issues Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 GitHub's Bot flag misses scripted human accounts. A working classifier: filing pace, performed_via_github_app and body markers, two signals to call it. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/what-expected-behaviour-means-in-a-bug-report https://whatproblem.dev/blog/what-expected-behaviour-means-in-a-bug-report Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Expected behaviour is the line saying what you thought would happen. What it means, how it differs from actual, and what to put when you had no expectation. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/when-nobody-replies https://whatproblem.dev/blog/when-nobody-replies Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 A question that goes unanswered is information, not just an absence. The five things silence on an issue usually means, and what to do with a thread that has gone quiet. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/duplicate-is-a-claim-about-two-problems https://whatproblem.dev/blog/duplicate-is-a-claim-about-two-problems Wed, 23 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Two issues that read alike are often different problems, and two that read differently are often the same one. How to tell, and what closing one costs the person who filed it. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/the-clarifying-question-that-gets-an-answer https://whatproblem.dev/blog/the-clarifying-question-that-gets-an-answer Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Asking for more information is easy. Asking so that a reply arrives is a different skill. Four things that separate the questions people answer from the ones they ignore. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/cannot-reproduce-is-a-status-not-a-verdict https://whatproblem.dev/blog/cannot-reproduce-is-a-status-not-a-verdict Fri, 11 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Closing an issue because it did not happen on your machine settles nothing. Four places the difference usually hides, and the one question worth asking first. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/when-one-issue-is-really-three https://whatproblem.dev/blog/when-one-issue-is-really-three Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Compound issues stall because there is no single thing to finish. How to spot one, and how to split it without losing the thread that connected the parts. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/agreeing-what-done-means https://whatproblem.dev/blog/agreeing-what-done-means Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Acceptance criteria without the ceremony. Three questions that settle what finished looks like while it is still cheap to disagree. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/issues-filed-on-someone-elses-behalf https://whatproblem.dev/blog/issues-filed-on-someone-elses-behalf Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Most bug reports are relayed, not witnessed. What gets lost between the person who saw the problem and the person who wrote it down. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/when-the-request-arrives-already-solved https://whatproblem.dev/blog/when-the-request-arrives-already-solved Sat, 15 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 We need a dashboard is not a requirement, it is a conclusion. How to get back to the problem someone had before they solved it for you. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/write-the-issue-for-the-person-who-picks-it-up-in-four-months https://whatproblem.dev/blog/write-the-issue-for-the-person-who-picks-it-up-in-four-months Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Backlog issues are read by strangers, and the most common stranger is the author with four months of forgetting in between. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/bug-or-product-decision https://whatproblem.dev/blog/bug-or-product-decision Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 A meaningful share of bug reports are disagreements about intended behaviour. They are cheap to spot on day one and expensive to discover in week three. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/reproduction-steps-that-start-where-the-reader-is https://whatproblem.dev/blog/reproduction-steps-that-start-where-the-reader-is Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Most reproduction steps begin halfway through, from a state only their author had. Four rules for steps somebody else can actually follow. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/it-doesnt-work-eight-things-that-sentence-can-mean https://whatproblem.dev/blog/it-doesnt-work-eight-things-that-sentence-can-mean Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 The most common bug report in the world is also the least useful. Here are the eight distinct failures it hides, and the one question that separates them. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/what-a-vague-ticket-actually-costs https://whatproblem.dev/blog/what-a-vague-ticket-actually-costs Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 The cost is not the developer's confusion. It is the wall-clock delay of a question crossing a timezone, multiplied by every unclear ticket you take. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/five-questions-that-turn-a-vague-issue-into-work https://whatproblem.dev/blog/five-questions-that-turn-a-vague-issue-into-work Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Most bug reports are missing the same five things. Here is what to ask, why each one matters, and why teams so often do not ask at all. https://whatproblem.dev/blog/why-issue-templates-get-filled-in-with-na https://whatproblem.dev/blog/why-issue-templates-get-filled-in-with-na Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Templates ask everyone the same questions regardless of what they are reporting. Here is why that fails, and what a template can realistically do instead.