# Fix First - a troubleshooting flowchart and a repair-or-replace call for broken things

> Describe a broken household thing - an appliance, a gadget, a bike, a tap: what it is, how old, what a new one costs, what it does wrong, what you already tried. The browser reads the category and its typical lifespan, numbers the symptoms, picks out error codes, matches safety words (gas, smoke, sparks, a swollen battery, a shock, water near wiring) and works out a repair ceiling for the item's age, drawn on a repair-or-replace dial - free. Then a metered run builds a yes/no troubleshooting flowchart ordered cheapest-and-safest check first, which you walk on screen one answer at a time, and a second run makes the call from where your walk ended: fix it yourself, call a pro, replace it, or stop - with estimated parts and costs. Every reply cites the page's facts by id and is checked against them.

URL: https://fix-first.skillsafe.ai/
API: https://fix-first.skillsafe.ai/api.html
Built on two SkillSafe skills: @addyosmani/debugging-and-error-recovery (systematic root-cause debugging - reproduce, localize, reduce, fix the cause, guard against recurrence) and @mhattingpete/flowchart-creator (decision trees and process flowcharts with yes/no branches).

## What runs free in the browser (fixkit.js, treeview.js, gauge.js)

- Report reading: 23 categories detected from the item name (weighted) and the symptoms, each with a typical service life range shown as an estimate. Symptoms and tried steps are split into numbered facts (Y1.., T1..); error codes on a display (E21, F05, "error 4C") become E1..; long text keeps its start and end around a marker. A .txt note can be opened or dropped.
- Safety: stop-level hazards - a gas smell, carbon monoxide, smoke or burning, sparks or arcing, a swollen lithium battery, an electric shock, water near wiring - set a floor that forces both answers to "stop" (a spark plug or a chirping smoke alarm is not a stop, and a hazard the person explicitly rules out, such as "no gas smell", is kept as a caution); cautions name refrigerant and sealed cooling systems, hardwired or high-voltage parts, tripping breakers, cracked glass, garage door springs, microwave capacitors, pressurised water heaters and furnaces.
- The money line: a rule of thumb - a repair is worth up to half the replacement price in the first half of the item's typical life, tapering to a tenth at the end of it - drawn as a dial with repair, think-it-over and replace zones. Type a repair quote and the needle shows where it lands.
- The flowchart: validated (no loops, no dangling or unreachable steps), laid out as an SVG tree with yes/no edges, and walked with Yes / No / Back / Start over; the walked path is drawn heavy. Exports: Markdown, Mermaid flowchart source (.mmd), steps CSV, JSON, and a printable repair card with checkboxes.

## The two metered tasks (model gpt-terra)

- `tree` - verdict `ready`, `need_info` (questions to answer first, plus a short starter tree) or `stop_unsafe` (required when a stop hazard was found; one stop step, no fixes). Nodes are `check` (a yes/no question), `fix`, `pro` or `stop`, each with how-to, tools, minutes and a risk level; the first check is low risk. A need-info tree's questions go back into the report with one click.
- `verdict` - verdict `diy_fix`, `call_pro`, `replace` or `stop_unsafe`, made from where the walk ended: the likely cause with a confidence, ordered steps, parts with estimated price ranges, do-it-yourself / pro / replace cost ranges, how to keep it from coming back, and when to stop and call someone.
- Both: no brands, model numbers or shops; error codes described as what they commonly mean, to be confirmed in the manual; costs only as rough whole-number estimates. `FixKit.reconcile` checks the safety floor, the tree's structure and step order, that the call matches the walk's last step (never fix-it-yourself from a call-a-pro step), that cost ranges are ordered and sit on the right side of the repair ceiling, and that every cited id is on the page.

## Notes

- General repair guidance, not a technician's diagnosis. Costs, lifespans and the repair ceiling are estimates, not quotes. Sample items are generic, not real brands.
- Saved repairs go to the signed-in user's own collection (`repairs`), only when they press save.