Nietzschian Debugger

"What doesn't kill your code makes it stronger."

It won't fix your bug. It'll fix you. Every other tool hands you the answer; Nietzschian Debugger hands the question back.

You paste your bug. It doesn't fix it. Instead, it:

• Challenges your assumptions about what's happening
• Forces you to confront the evidence you're avoiding
• Tears apart your weak reasoning until only truth remains
• Guides you to the "aha!" moment — YOUR moment, not the AI's

Why?

AI is making developers weaker. Copy-paste from ChatGPT, ship, repeat. Nobody understands their own code anymore. Nietzschian Debugger forges stronger developers — through struggle, not shortcuts.

This isn't anti-AI — it runs on Claude, on purpose. It's anti-outsourcing-your-thinking. Every other tool uses the model to hand you the answer; this one uses it to hand the question back.

"He who has a why to debug can bear almost any how."

Installation

# Python 3.10+
pip install nietzschian-debugger
nietzschian debug "your bug"

Note: the current tool is the Python package above. The old npx nietzschian-debugger serves a stale pre-rewrite build — it has been deprecated in favour of the pip install.

Requirements:

• Python >= 3.10
• An Anthropic API key (BYOK — bring your own key)

Setup

Set your Anthropic API key:

# Linux / macOS
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

# Windows (PowerShell)
$env:ANTHROPIC_API_KEY = "sk-ant-..."

# Windows (CMD)
set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

Quick Start

# Start a debugging session (default: nietzsche intensity)
nietzschian debug "My API returns 500 but only on Tuesdays"

# Gentle mode — for when you need guidance, not punishment
nietzschian debug --intensity socrates "My login endpoint fails randomly"

# Maximum intensity — for seniors who want pain
nietzschian debug --intensity zarathustra "Memory leak in production"

# Point it at specific code
nietzschian debug "Auth fails in ./src/middleware/auth.ts"

Three Intensity Levels

How a Session Looks

  Nietzschian Debugger v0.2.0 — intensity: nietzsche

You: My login endpoint returns 403 for some users

Nietzschian: You say "some users." That's vague. What separates
             the ones who fail from the ones who don't?

You: I'm not sure, it seems random

Nietzschian: "Random" is the word we use when we haven't looked
             hard enough. What do the server logs say for the 403
             responses? Go look. I'll wait.

You: Let me check... oh, they all have expired JWT tokens

Nietzschian: Now we're getting somewhere. What changed in your
             auth system last week that an old session wouldn't
             have survived?

You: ... oh. We changed the token TTL last week and didn't
     invalidate existing sessions.

Nietzschian: There it is. You didn't need me to tell you — you
             needed to be forced to look.

Session Complete — 4 questions to root cause (Solved)

Your Debugging Profile:
┣ Assumption-checking    ██████████  strong
┣ Evidence-gathering     ██████░░░░  moderate
┗ Root cause speed       ████████░░  strong

"Man is something that shall be overcome."
 — Friedrich Nietzsche

Session Commands

Features

• Never Gives Answers — Every response is a question. The tool will NEVER tell you the fix.
• Real Code Reading — Reference a file path and it reads YOUR actual code, not generic examples.
• Contextual Philosophy — Nietzsche when you're avoiding, Seneca when overwhelmed, Sun Tzu when you need strategy.
• Growth Score — Track your debugging skills across sessions with visual bar charts.
• Session History — All sessions saved locally in .nietzschian/sessions/ for trend tracking.
• Sliding Context — Long sessions don't crash; older turns are transparently summarized.

The Philosophy

Who Is This For?

• Junior developers who want to actually learn, not just copy-paste
• Senior developers who miss the struggle that made them good
• Engineering managers who want their team thinking, not just prompting
• Bootcamp students building real debugging intuition
• Anyone who believes the best developer is a self-reliant one

Development

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/DilawarShafiq/nietzschian-debugger.git
cd nietzschian-debugger
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests (121 tests)
pytest

# Run the CLI locally
nietzschian debug "test problem"

Tech Stack

• Python >= 3.10
• Claude API via the Anthropic SDK
• Click for the CLI, Rich for the terminal UI
• pytest for testing

License

MIT