Debugging Techniques

Purpose

Provides systematic debugging workflows for local, remote, container, and production environments across Python, Go, Rust, and Node.js. Covers interactive debuggers, container debugging with ephemeral containers, and production-safe techniques using correlation IDs and distributed tracing.

When to Use This Skill

Trigger this skill for:

• Setting breakpoints in Python, Go, Rust, or Node.js code
• Debugging running containers or Kubernetes pods
• Setting up remote debugging connections
• Safely debugging production issues
• Inspecting goroutines, threads, or async tasks
• Analyzing core dumps or stack traces
• Choosing the right debugging tool for a scenario

Quick Reference by Language

Python Debugging

Built-in: pdb

# Python 3.7+
def buggy_function(x, y):
    breakpoint()  # Stops execution here
    return x / y

# Older Python
import pdb
pdb.set_trace()

Essential pdb commands:

• list (l) - Show code around current line
• next (n) - Execute current line, step over functions
• step (s) - Execute current line, step into functions
• continue (c) - Continue until next breakpoint
• print var (p) - Print variable value
• where (w) - Show stack trace
• quit (q) - Exit debugger

Enhanced tools:

• ipdb - Enhanced pdb with tab completion, syntax highlighting (pip install ipdb)
• pudb - Terminal GUI debugger (pip install pudb)
• debugpy - VS Code integration (included in Python extension)

Debugging tests:

pytest --pdb  # Drop into debugger on test failure

For detailed Python debugging patterns, see references/python-debugging.md.

Go Debugging

Delve - Official Go debugger

Installation:

go install github.com/go-delve/delve/cmd/dlv@latest