Minimal Reproducible Example

• Minimal Reproducible Example

  • The smallest self-contained program or dataset that reliably reproduces a bug, allowing someone else to copy, run, and observe the same problem without any additional context.

  • Key Characteristics

    • Minimal — include only what is necessary to demonstrate the problem; remove everything unrelated.
    • Complete — include everything someone else needs to run it; no external dependencies or missing setup.
    • Reproducible — verify it actually triggers the issue before sharing.

  • Context

    • Coined and popularized by the Stack Overflow community; the canonical reference is the Stack Overflow Help Center: How to create a Minimal, Reproducible Example.
    • Also known by several older acronyms: MCVE (Minimal, Complete, Verifiable Example), MWE (Minimal Working Example), SSCCE (Short, Self Contained, Correct Example), and reprex (reproducible example, common in the R community).
    • Creating one is useful both for getting help (forces clarity) and for diagnosing the problem yourself — the process of stripping code down often reveals the root cause.