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Debug with Bits

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Overview

Debug with Bits brings a conversational interface to Live Debugger for investigating running services through natural language. Describe what you want to investigate, and Bits places logpoints, retrieves variable snapshots, and interprets results. After Bits identifies a root cause, it can suggest code fixes.

All debugging activity runs through Live Debugger, so the same permissions, rate limits, auto-expiry behavior, and sensitive data scrubbing apply.

Debug with Bits uses Bits Code, which may impact billing.

Prerequisites

Before using Debug with Bits:

Available actions

Bits can perform the following Live Debugger actions during a debugging session:

ActionDescription
Discover servicesFind and validate services available for debugging in a given environment.
Create logpointsAdd logpoints to a running service at a specific code location.
List session logpointsShow the logpoints active in a Debug Session.
Disable logpointsDisable all logpoints in a Debug Session.
Retrieve snapshot dataFetch captured variable values and execution context from an active logpoint.

Logpoints created by Bits follow the same rules as manually created logpoints. They are read-only, non-blocking, and expire automatically after the configured time limit (10 minutes to 2 days; default: 60 minutes). Bits cannot modify application state or alter control flow.

Start a debugging session

  1. Go to Live Debugger in Datadog.

  2. In the Debug with Bits chatbox, describe the issue you want to investigate. Select the target service and environment before submitting the prompt.

    Bits then works through the investigation automatically:

    • It analyzes relevant code paths in the connected source code repository and may ask follow-up questions to form a hypothesis.
    • It configures and activates up to 5 logpoints at relevant code locations to capture the specific data it needs.
    • It retrieves and analyzes the logs and variable snapshots from the active logpoints to validate its hypothesis and formulate its response.
  3. Review the response from Bits and, optionally, explore the details of the logpoints, captured data, and any code fixes suggested. Reply in the chat to continue the investigation as needed.

  4. To disable logpoints at any time, ask Bits or click the Disable button on an individual logpoint or the session.

Note: Bits typically disables the logpoints it creates as soon as it retrieves the data it needs. Logpoints also expire automatically after the configured time limit.

Behavior and limitations

Multi-version environments: When multiple code versions are deployed in the target environment, the target file may differ between versions. In that case, Bits asks you to confirm the target version before placing a logpoint. This prevents logpoints from landing at incorrect line numbers.

Language support: Some features vary by language. For example, condition expressions are not supported for all runtimes. Bits notifies you when a requested feature is not available for the target service’s language.

Sensitive data: The sensitive data scrubbing behavior that applies to manually created logpoints also applies to logpoints created by Bits. In production environments, non-numeric and non-Boolean captured values are redacted by default.

Further reading