Live Debugging

Live Debuggers instrument execution so that you can

• capture some of the values over time
• add print statements in production and log the values the console

Time Travel Debugging

Time Travel Debuggers record inputs to a runtime so that you can replay the runtime after the fact

• see the application state at any point in time
• evaluate an expression at any point in time
• add retro active print statements

Instrumentation vs Record Replay

Live debuggers are similar to other observability tools in that they rely on instrumenting the runtime in order to collect useful data to show after the fact.

Time Travel debuggers rely on recording the runtime in order to be able to replay the runtime after the fact and collect useful data. e.g. ttd as a service