mongo-ai/posthog-error-tracking-diagnosis

Error tracking diagnosis workflow

Before you diagnose: fetch live docs

1. Run docs-search("error tracking troubleshooting {specific symptom}")
2. If source map related: run docs-search("upload source maps {framework}")
3. If potential known bug: run gh search issues on the relevant SDK repo
4. Use the fetched docs as your primary reference — NOT the steps below

The steps below are a diagnostic FRAMEWORK (what questions to ask, in what order). The docs responses are the CONTENT (current answers, version requirements, config details).

Goal

Determine whether the issue is caused by:

• exceptions not being captured
• error tracking not installed/enabled correctly
• exceptions captured but grouped unexpectedly
• source maps missing or mismatched
• release/version mismatch
• wrong project / environment mismatch
• known framework bug

Step 1: Verify issue existence

Use error tracking tools to confirm:

• issue exists
• issue frequency / recency
• environments/releases involved
• whether the complaint is "not captured" or "captured but unreadable"

Step 2: Check raw exception evidence

Query recent exception events if needed.

SELECT event, timestamp, properties.$lib, properties.$lib_version, properties.$exception_list
FROM events
WHERE event = '$exception'
ORDER BY timestamp DESC
LIMIT 50;

If the user gave a distinct_id, scope to it.

Step 3: Distinguish missing capture vs bad symbolication

If no exception events exist:

• suspect install/capture path problem
• run docs-search("error tracking setup {platform}") for current install guidance

If events exist but stack traces are minified or poor:

• suspect source maps / symbol sets / release path mismatch

Step 4: Source map troubleshooting

Run docs-search("error tracking source maps troubleshooting symbol sets")

Use the returned checklist to verify:

• source maps were uploaded
• they were uploaded to the correct project
• upload timing preceded deploy
• paths match production bundles exactly

Step 5: Release / environment context

Inspect whether the error is tied to a release or environment mismatch that explains why uploaded source maps are not resolving.

Step 6: Known issue search

Search GitHub with at least 2 variants:

• gh search issues --repo PostHog/{sdk-repo} "error tracking {symptom}"
• gh search issues --repo PostHog/{sdk-repo} "source map {symptom}"

Step 7: Draft likely fix path

Prefer concrete actions based on the live docs guidance:

• confirm install path
• confirm exception capture
• verify source map upload
• verify bundle URL path matching
• verify project/region/release alignment