software-android-runtime-debugging

Native Android Runtime Debugging

Use this skill when the core problem is not app architecture or visual design, but runtime truth: did the current APK/AAB build, install, launch, and render on the intended emulator or device — and, once that's proven, why is it slow, freezing, or leaking memory?

This skill owns stale-build suspicion, emulator drift, malformed APKs, ADB failures, Gradle cache corruption, ProGuard/R8 stripping, Compose recomposition issues, ANR/jank/memory/startup performance triage, and the proof loop required before trusting screenshots, UI behavior, or downstream API/auth debugging.

Platform Currency (as of 2026-07-11)

• Android 17 (API 37) shipped 2026-06-16; Android 16 (API 36) is the prior release. Verify at developer.android.com/about/versions before citing a specific version as latest — this changes roughly annually.
• Google Play target API policy: new apps and app updates must target API level 36 (Android 16) or higher as of the 2026-08-31 deadline, with a one-time extension to 2026-11-01 available by request. Re-verify at developer.android.com/google/play/requirements/target-sdk rather than hardcoding a number.
• 16KB page-size support is mandatory for app updates shipping native (.so) libraries as of 2026-05-01. An app whose ELF LOAD segments are still 4KB-aligned runs in a 16KB backcompat mode; test on a 16KB-page-size emulator image, not just the default. Verify current enforcement at developer.android.com/guide/practices/page-sizes.
• AGP 9.x is the current stable Android Gradle Plugin series (crossed the 9.0 major boundary in early 2026); it raises the minimum Gradle version and enables built-in Kotlin support by default. Verify current minimums at developer.android.com/build/releases/gradle-plugin-roadmap before assuming an AGP-8-era Gradle wrapper still works.
• Android Studio current stable is the Quail series (2026.1.x); the prior Otter series (2025.2.x) is now legacy. Verify the live release name/version at developer.android.com/studio/releases — Google renames each yearly series and this drifts within months.
• Perfetto, not Systrace, is the current system- and app-tracing stack; Systrace is retired. See references/performance-triage.md.

Quick Reference

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill to:

• Prove a fresh uninstall/install/launch loop for a native Android app
• Diagnose stale installs or stale screenshots in emulator-driven workflows
• Inspect built APK/AAB contents when installation or launch fails
• Debug emulator boot, ADB connectivity, and device state drift
• Investigate Gradle build failures, dependency resolution, and cache corruption
• Triage R8/ProGuard stripping errors that surface only at runtime
• Debug Compose recomposition, stability, and incremental compilation artifacts
• Classify and triage ANRs, jank, memory leaks, and slow startup using Perfetto, Macrobenchmark, LeakCanary, and StrictMode
• Establish runtime truth before routing to feature implementation, design, or test skills

Core Workflow

1. Discover the project entrypoint: build.gradle.kts (root and app module), applicationId, build variant (debug/release), target device or emulator.
2. Check environment: ANDROID_HOME set, JDK version matches AGP requirement, Gradle wrapper present, adb devices shows the target, emulator booted or device connected.
3. Build the app: ./gradlew assembleDebug. Confirm output ends with BUILD SUCCESSFUL.
4. Inspect the APK: aapt2 dump badging app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk. Verify applicationId, versionCode, minSdk, declared activities, and expected resources.
5. Remove stale installs: adb uninstall <applicationId>.
6. Install the fresh build: adb install -r app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk.
7. Launch and capture proof: adb shell am start -n <applicationId>/<fully.qualified.Activity>, then capture logcat output and a screenshot (adb exec-out screencap -p > proof.png).
8. Only after the app is freshly running, debug feature behavior, design, auth, or API issues.
9. Route onward:
   • native feature or architecture work -> software-android-native
   • test execution and device matrix -> qa-testing-android
   • general debugging methodology -> qa-debugging

ASCII Flow

Android runtime failure
  -> Capture exact device, API, build, repro, and logcat window
  -> Prove fresh install and launch state
  -> Classify: crash, ANR, lifecycle, Compose, network, storage, or release
  -> Inspect stack, logs, profiler, and UI hierarchy evidence
  -> Patch the smallest failing path
  -> Rerun same repro and keep before/after proof

Runtime Proof Loop

• Prefer one bounded loop: discover -> check env -> clean build -> inspect APK -> uninstall -> install -> launch -> capture evidence -> then debug.
• If any step fails, stop there and fix that layer before moving deeper.
• Do not trust screenshots from an emulator session that has not been tied to the current build.
• Do not trust "BUILD SUCCESSFUL" on its own; install and launch proof still matter.
• Verify launch at three levels: the process started (adb shell pidof <pkg>), the correct Activity is in the foreground (adb shell dumpsys activity top), and the expected content rendered (screenshot or UI automator dump).
• If a screenshot contradicts the expected state, check the installed APK's versionCode against the build output before trusting the capture.

See references/runtime-proof-loop.md.

Stale-Build Heuristics

• If the UI on screen does not match current source, suspect stale APK before any other explanation.
• If the app keeps showing an old layout after rebuild, uninstall the installed app and reinstall the fresh APK.
• If Gradle says build succeeded but the app looks old, check the APK timestamp and path — the wrong variant or module may have been built.
• If the emulator was already running and UI state is surprising, re-prove install and launch before reasoning about app state.
• If incremental compilation is suspected (source moved between modules, annotation processor stale, Compose compiler version mismatch), do a full clean build before anything else.
• If the Gradle daemon has been running for hours with changing jvmargs or plugin versions, stop it with ./gradlew --stop and rebuild.

See references/stale-build-triage.md.

APK/AAB Health Checklist

When installation or launch fails, inspect the built artifact directly:

• aapt2 dump badging <apk> — verify applicationId, versionCode, minSdk, targetSdk, declared activities and permissions
• Launcher Activity declared with correct intent filter in merged manifest (app/build/intermediates/merged_manifests/)
• Expected resources present: aapt2 dump resources <apk>
• For apps with native code: .so files present for correct ABIs (lib/arm64-v8a/, lib/armeabi-v7a/, lib/x86_64/)
• For release builds: mapping.txt exists alongside the APK for crash symbolication

Gradle Troubleshooting Patterns

Gradle is the most common source of build failures. Common patterns: dependency resolution, version catalog drift, KSP/KAPT version mismatches, AGP compatibility, and configuration cache invalidation.

See references/gradle-build-troubleshooting.md.

Compose Debugging

Jetpack Compose introduces recomposition, stability, and compiler-level concerns that do not exist in View-based UI. When Compose UI behaves unexpectedly — interactions silently fail, UI does not update, or performance is poor — use Compose-specific debugging before blaming app logic.

See references/compose-debugging.md.

Performance Triage: ANR, Jank, Memory, Startup

Once build/install/launch is proven, "the app is slow" or "the app freezes" is not one problem — it is an ANR, jank, a memory leak, or a slow start, and each has a different first move. Classify before reaching for a profiler:

1. System ANR dialog or a Play Console ANR cluster exists -> read the ANR trace, find the blocked thread and which watchdog (input/broadcast/service) fired.
2. Stutter or skipped frames while the app stays responsive -> jank. Start with framestats, escalate to Perfetto.
3. The app slows down over a session or gets OOM-killed -> memory. Confirm a growth trend with dumpsys meminfo before assuming a leak.
4. The complaint is specifically about time-to-first-frame after tapping the icon -> startup. Measure with Macrobenchmark before changing code.
5. None of the above -> it is a correctness bug, not a performance problem; route to normal crash/log triage.

When not to microbenchmark: a microbenchmark measures one function's CPU cost in isolation. It cannot see cold-start AOT/JIT/class-loading cost (use Macrobenchmark instead), cannot see multi-frame jank pipeline stages (use Perfetto/framestats first), and should never run before a trace has confirmed the function is actually on the critical path.

Common misdiagnosis to catch: a dropped frame during an IPC-heavy screen looks identical to a GC pause from the outside. Check the Perfetto thread-state track — GC pauses show explicit GC markers; binder contention shows the calling thread blocked on a transaction to another process. Do not write "it's GC" into a report without checking the trace.

See references/performance-triage.md for the full decision tree, ANR thresholds, frame budget math, Perfetto/Macrobenchmark/StrictMode/LeakCanary usage, ART GC behavior, current Play Console vitals thresholds, and more misdiagnosis patterns.

ProGuard/R8 Triage

R8 (the default code shrinker) can remove classes, methods, and fields that are referenced only via reflection, serialization, or framework conventions. When release builds crash with ClassNotFoundException, NoSuchMethodError, or silent data corruption, suspect R8 stripping before app logic.

See references/proguard-r8-triage.md.

Route Elsewhere

• Use software-android-native once runtime truth is established and the task becomes feature implementation, Kotlin architecture, or Compose layout.
• Use qa-testing-android once the app is buildable and installable and the task becomes test execution, device matrix, or flake control.
• Use qa-debugging for general debugging methodology not specific to Android build/install/launch.
• Use software-mobile for platform choice, iOS, or cross-platform tradeoffs.

Navigation

References

Templates

Related Skills

Fact-Checking

• Known bugs, regressions, framework/compiler/runtime footguns, and version-specific crash or workaround guidance must be verified against current primary web sources before being treated as current fact.
• Prefer developer.android.com for ADB, aapt2, AGP, and build system behavior.
• Prefer upstream Gradle documentation for wrapper, daemon, caching, and dependency resolution.
• Prefer developer.android.com/topic/performance for ANR thresholds, vitals thresholds, tracing (Perfetto), and Macrobenchmark/Baseline Profile guidance — these are Google-controlled policy numbers and tool defaults that move.
• Prefer perfetto.dev and square.github.io/leakcanary for Perfetto and LeakCanary specifics respectively.
• Treat repo-specific build variants, applicationId, module structure, and Gradle properties as local facts that must be discovered, not assumed.

Learnings Loop

Before applying this skill on a non-trivial task, read learnings.consolidated.md in this directory (and learnings.md if present).

After applying it, if you encountered a pattern worth remembering, a mistake worth preventing, or a domain fact that surprised you, append one dated bullet to learnings.md via agents-skills-feedback-loop/scripts/append_learning.py. Do not modify SKILL.md itself.