plasma-umass/ChatDBG

What it solves

ChatDBG is an AI-powered debugging assistant that helps developers find the root cause of program crashes and bugs. It eliminates the manual effort of stepping through code and inspecting variables by allowing users to ask open-ended questions about why a program failed and receiving automated diagnoses and suggested fixes.

How it works

ChatDBG integrates directly into standard debuggers like pdb (Python), lldb, and gdb (C/C++/Rust). When a program crashes or hits a breakpoint, the user can issue a why command. The system then uses a Large Language Model (LLM), specifically GPT-4 via OpenAI, to "take the wheel" of the debugger, steering it to gather necessary information and perform root cause analysis to explain the failure.

Who it’s for

Developers working in Python, C, C++, and Rust who want to automate the process of diagnosing software bugs and identifying the root cause of errors.

Highlights

• Multi-language support: Works with Python, C, C++, and Rust.
• Debugger integration: Plugs into pdb, lldb, and gdb as an extension.
• Root cause analysis: Automatically performs root cause analysis rather than just providing a general explanation.
• Interactive dialog: Allows users to engage in a conversation with the debugger to explore the program state.
• Suggested fixes: Provides concrete code suggestions to resolve the identified bug.