Debug the Process First
When the result is wrong, inspect the brief, permissions, sources, and stops before you blame the model. The process is the scene. The last reply is not.
When the result is wrong, the first move is often “try another model.” Most of the time the model was not the bottleneck. The process had a gap: no acceptance, no source, permission too wide, no stop when unsure. A new model reruns the same gap.
After reading, you should be able to answer:
- Which five places do you inspect first?
- Why is the last “all done” paragraph not evidence?
- When is it actually time to switch product or model?
Five gaps
Inspect in this order. If you can locate it, do not guess further:
- The brief. Which of the five things is missing? No object invents. No acceptance yields “close enough.”
- Permission. Is the scope this run's folder or files? Too wide touches the wrong thing. Too narrow stops at “I cannot see it.”
- Sources. Is the object actually there and readable? When it cannot find the file, it rarely returns empty-handed. It fills.
- Stops. Did it stop when unsure, irreversible, or failed? Without stops, later steps bury the error.
- The comparison. Is the original still there? Can the check command still run? Without a comparison, you can only believe the last paragraph.
The last paragraph is not the scene
“All sorted,” “tests should pass,” “the numbers look fine” are closing lines, not evidence. The scene is the process: the plan, permission prompts, intermediate drafts, errors, questions it asked you. Codex is described as gathering context, acting, and producing something useful. Useful is measured against the brief you wrote, not against its closing line.codex-overview
Switch tools only after the process is readable
If all five checks pass — complete brief, sources present, stops exist, comparison intact — and it still stably fails the same kind of job, then switch product or model. Switching before that turns a method problem into a shopping problem, and the next miss is harder to read. How office work reuses the skeleton is in Doubao Work's daily plays. On the coding side, see where Codex breaks.