---
title: Post-Failure Autopsy
description: System workflow that investigates failed runs and recommends retry, resume, rewind, environment fixes, or a bug report.
---

`post-failure` is a hidden system workflow that Smithers can launch after a run
fails. It gathers deterministic evidence from `inspect`, `events`, the failed
workflow source when available, and the installed Smithers version. A configured
agent then classifies the failure and returns one concrete next move.

Run it explicitly when you want the same autopsy outside the automatic
post-failure path:

```bash
bunx smithers-orchestrator workflow run post-failure \
  --input '{"targetRunId":"RUN_ID","workflowPath":".smithers/workflows/example.tsx"}'
```

The final output includes:

- `failureClass`: `workflow-bug`, `environment`, `agent-flake`, `smithers-bug`, or `unknown`
- `suggestion`: retry, resume, rewind, edit-workflow-and-reset, fix-environment, or escalate
- `commands`: exact commands to run from the failed workspace
- optional bug report metadata when the failure appears to be in Smithers itself

If the investigator suspects a Smithers bug, the workflow pauses on a human
approval gate before filing anything through `bunx smithers-orchestrator bug`.
