Gemini debugging — paste your whole module, not just the broken line

Gemini's large context window is its debugging superpower — use it. Paste MORE code, not less.

'You are a senior [LANGUAGE/FRAMEWORK] engineer doing a thorough code review and debug. I'm pasting multiple files and the full error — use the full context to find root causes that span across modules, not just the broken line.

[PASTE THE FULL MODULE/FILE — not just the broken function]
[PASTE RELATED FILES: types, configs, imports, the calling code]
[PASTE THE COMPLETE ERROR/STACK TRACE — unedited]
[DESCRIBE: what should happen vs what actually happens]

Analyze at three levels:

1. LINE-LEVEL: What specific code is causing this error? Show the corrected code with comments explaining what changed and why.

2. ARCHITECTURE-LEVEL: Is this a symptom of a deeper design issue? (wrong data flow, missing error boundary, race condition, incorrect abstraction, state management problem). If so, explain the structural fix, not just the band-aid.

3. PREVENTION: Write a test that would have caught this bug before it shipped. Use [testing framework, e.g. Jest/pytest/Go test]. The test should:
   - Reproduce the exact failure condition
   - Assert the correct behavior
   - Cover the edge case that triggered this

If the cause is ambiguous, give the 2-3 most likely explanations ranked by probability, and tell me how to confirm which one it is (a specific log line to add, a value to inspect, a condition to test).

Do NOT guess at code you can't see — ask me for the specific file if you need it.'

WHY 'PASTE MORE' WORKS BETTER WITH GEMINI:
• Most bugs aren't in the line that throws — they're in the data that arrives wrong, the config that's misconfigured, or the type that doesn't match. Gemini's 1M+ token context means you can paste the whole module, its imports, and the calling code. Do it.
• The 'paste your whole module, not just the broken function' technique catches: incorrect imports, missing middleware, wrong environment variables, type mismatches across module boundaries, and stale caches — none of which are visible in a code snippet.
• Include your package.json / requirements.txt / go.mod if you suspect a dependency issue.

Tips: paste the full unedited stack trace — paraphrasing errors loses critical info (line numbers, call order, variable states); if the bug is intermittent, describe the conditions when it happens vs doesn't; for frontend bugs, paste the component AND the hook/store it reads from; add 'also check for: race conditions, null propagation, off-by-one, and async/await mistakes' to trigger a broader scan.