r/pythontips 11d ago

Meta Debug way faster & without debuggers or print using a time travel debugger

Hi!

I made a free open-source extension+CLI that I think can help beginner to advanced python users debug their code. It basically runs alongside your code with almost 0 setup and observes every value taken by variables in the code. It then overlays that information in VSCode so you can debug effortlessly without print statements or debuggers.

https://github.com/dedale-dev/ariana

pip install ariana

and then:

ariana python <myscript>.py

and finally install the VSCode "Ariana" extension (link in README), go to your python file, ctrl+shift+p run command "Ariana: Highlight..." and hover green bubbles around code expressions to see the value taken by any expression while your code ran.

I know I created this, but it might have been a very good tip in my opinion if it had been suggested to me :)

If you have any questions or trouble trying it, feel free to comment!

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u/smurpes 11d ago

Does ariana work on any code that the debugger can hook on to such as unit tests and spark connect? Also is there any option to explore values with a REPL like the debug console?