Source maps are crucial tools that map minified JavaScript files back to their original source code, enabling developers to debug effectively by translating errors in production code to precise locations in the original TypeScript or JavaScript files. These maps are generated throughout the JavaScript build pipeline, which includes transpilation, bundling, and minification, and they preserve the connection to the original code at each stage. Source maps use a JSON format with fields like version, file, sources, and mappings, where the mapping data is encoded using Variable Length Quantity (VLQ) encoding to efficiently store position data by representing differences between positions with small deltas. This allows for compact storage of large minified file coordinates as smaller encoded strings. The mapping strings use commas and semicolons to structure lines and segments, where each segment defines the mapping from a position in the generated file to a position in the source file. Understanding these mappings and the encoding process provides insight into how source maps maintain the integrity of the original code during debugging, with future integration into tools like parca-agent and Polar Signals Cloud promising to extend this functionality to performance profiling workflows.