Revolutionizing Remote Debugging with Sidekick

As developers, we’ve all been there – stuck in a never-ending cycle of debugging, redeploying, and retesting. Traditional remote debugging tools can be cumbersome and intrusive, disrupting the application’s performance and causing more problems than they solve. But what if there was a better way?

Introducing Sidekick

Sidekick is a live app debugger that allows you to debug remote environments as if they were local. With its non-intrusive approach, Sidekick enables you to set breakpoints, collect data, and debug your code without disrupting the application’s performance. This innovative tool has the potential to revolutionize the way we approach remote debugging.

The Problem with Traditional Remote Debugging Tools

Traditional remote debugging tools require a port to be open for the debugger, which can be a security risk. Moreover, when a breakpoint is hit, the application is paused, causing disruption to other users. In a production environment, this can be catastrophic.

How Sidekick Works

Sidekick consists of three layers:

• The broker: controls communication between clients and agents
• Agents: collect snapshot data and generate dynamic logs
• Clients: the interface that allows users to interact with agents

Key Features of Sidekick

Sidekick offers several key features that make it an attractive solution for remote debugging:

• Tracepoints: Non-breaking remote breakpoints that collect data without disrupting the application.
• Logpoints: Dynamic logging that allows you to add log expressions to a running app without changing the source code.
• Security: Sidekick enforces security on multiple levels, including source code protection, data transmission encryption, and GDPR compliance.

Getting Started with Sidekick

To get started with Sidekick, follow these steps:

1. Clone the Sidekick repo:

   git clone https://example.com/sidekick-repo.git

2. Install the Docker image:

   docker pull sidekick/image

3. Set up local instances
4. Open the quick start application folder in VSCode
5. Install the Sidekick extension
6. Connect to the Sidekick broker

Using Sidekick

Once you’re set up, you can use Sidekick to debug your application by:

• Setting tracepoints and logpoints
• Using the Sidekick REST API to expose the live debugger and interact with the agents programmatically

Performance and Maturity

Sidekick agents are lightweight and add almost no overhead to the application execution. While Sidekick is still a relatively new tool, it has already gained traction in the developer community and is actively maintained.

Note: For more information on using Sidekick, please refer to the official documentation at undefined.com/sidekick-docs.