Debugging your backend like a frontend with Sidekick

Sidekick, a live app debugger, addresses the challenges of remote debugging by allowing developers to debug applications in remote environments as if they were local, without pausing execution. Unlike traditional remote debugging tools that can be disruptive and security-prone, Sidekick offers non-intrusive debugging through tracepoints and logpoints, which capture snapshots of application states and add log expressions without altering source code. The open-source version of Sidekick, which can be self-hosted, consists of a broker, agents, and clients, facilitating seamless communication and data collection. It supports Java, Python, and Node.js runtimes, with IDE extensions available for VSCode and IntelliJ IDEA. Sidekick's design ensures security and compliance with GDPR standards, while its lightweight agents minimize performance overhead. While still relatively new, with its open-source release in 2022, Sidekick is actively maintained and offers a promising solution for modern debugging needs.