camoryang/cyberbrain

Python debugging, redefined.

Cyberbrain: Python debugging, redefined.

Cyberbrain is a Python debugging solution aiming to free programmers. It visualizes program execution and how each variable changes.

Never spend hours stepping through a program, let Cyberbrain tell you.

Install

Cyberbrain consists of a Python library and various editor/IDE integrations. Currently VS Code is the only supported editor, but we have plans to expand the support.

To install Cyberbrain:

pip install cyberbrain
code --install-extension laike9m.cyberbrain

Or if you prefer, install from PyPI and VS Code marketplace.

Or, you can try Cyberbrain directly from your browser:

How to Use

Suppose you want to trace a function called foo, just decorate it with @trace:

from cyberbrain import trace

@trace  # You can disable tracing with `@trace(disabled=True)`
def foo():
    ...

Cyberbrain keeps your workflow unchanged. You run a program (from vscode or command line, both work), call "Initialize Cyberbrain" from the command palette, and a new panel will be opened to visualize how your program execution.

The following gif demonstrates the workflow (click to view the full size image):

Features provided:

• Dataflow analysis
• Variable tracing (try hover on any variable, it only highlights relevant variables)
• Object inspection (value is logged in the opened devtools console)
• Expect more to come 🤟

Read our documentation to learn more about Cyberbrain's features.

❗Note on use❗

• Cyberbrain may conflict with other debuggers. If you set breakpoints and use VSC's debugger, Cyberbrain may not function normally. Generally speaking, prefer "Run Without Debugging" (like shown in the gif).
• To run Cyberbrain multiple times with different programs, you need to:
  1. Kill the program by Ctrl+C (Cyberbrain will halt your program from exiting).
  2. Run "Initialize Cyberbrain" again.

Status Quo and Milestones

Updated 2020.10

Cyberbrain is new and under active development, bugs are expected. If you met any, I appreciate if you can create an issue. At this point, you should NOT use Cyberbrain in production.

Milestones for the project are listed below, which may change over time. Generally speaking, we'll release 1.0 when it reaches "Production ready".

Milestone	Description	Status
Examples ready	Cyberbrain works on examples (in the examples/ folder)	WIP
Live demo ready	Cyberbrain can work with code you write in a live demo, in most cases	Not started
Scripts ready	Cyberbrain can work with most "scripting" programs	Not started
Announcement ready	Cyberbrain is ready to be shared on Hacker News and Reddit. Please don't broadcast Cyberbrain before it reaches this milestone.	Not started
Production ready	Cyberbrain can work with most programs in production	Not started

Note that v1.0 means Cyberbrain is stable in the features it supports, it does NOT mean Cyberbrain is feature complete. Major features planned for each future version are listed below. Again, expect it to change at any time.

Version	Features
1.0	Code & trace interaction (#7), remote debugging, trace dump
2.0	async support, including generators
3.0	Multi-frame tracing
4.0	Fine-grained symbol tracing
5.0	Multi-threading support

Visit the project's kanban to learn more about the current development schedule.

How does it compare to other tools?

• PySnooper

  Cyberbrain and PySnooper share the same goal of reducing programmers' work while debugging. However they are fundamentally different: Cyberbrain traces and shows the sources of each variable change, while PySnooper only logs them. The differences should be pretty obvious after you tried both.

• Debug Visualizer

  Debug visualizer and Cyberbrain have different goals. Debug visualizes data structures, while Cyberbrain visualizes your program execution (but also lets you inspect values)

Community

Join the Cyberbrain community Discord 💬 and follow us on Twitter @PyCyberbrain 🐦.

All questions & suggestions & discussions welcomed.

Interested in Contributing?

Get started here.

Support

I'm almost working full time (besides my regular job) on Cyberbrain. This project is huge, complicated and will last for years, however it will reshape how people think and do debugging. That's why I need your support. Let's make it the best Python debugging tool 🤟!