textual-debugger 0.1.0

A TUI Python debugger based on textual and debugpy

textual-debugger

textual-debugger (the package) provides tdb (the command-line tool and module), a full-featured terminal-based Python debugger.

tdb is built with textual and debugpy (the Debug Adapter Protocol engine behind VS Code's Python debugger). It provides a rich interactive interface for stepping through code, inspecting variables, managing breakpoints, and evaluating expressions in complex Python programs.

• PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/textual-debugger/
• GitHub: https://github.com/AlDanial/tdb

MIT License. Copyright 2026 by Al Danial.

Feature Overview

tdb:

• supports debugging of synchronous, asynchronous, multi-threaded, and multi-process Python code. It specifically supports modules

  • asyncio (with a built-in async task inspector and task wait graph)
  • threading (with a thread inspector)
  • multiprocessing / concurrent.futures (with automatic child process attachment and a process inspector)

• supports remote attachment to any debugpy-enabled Python program

• includes a JSON-RPC server mode for programmatic debug control, making it suitable for automated, headless debugging workflows and AI-assisted debugging

• can spawn the debuggee in an external terminal to enable debugging TUI applications built with textual, prompt-toolkit, urwid, curses, rich, and so on

• comes with a post-mortem exception hook that can be installed in Python programs to have tdb pop open automatically at the first uncaught exception

• can be entirely keyboard-driven making it suitable for operation in non-graphical environments (mouse support is available in graphical environments)

Acknowledgments

Thank you:

• Will McGugan for the amazing textual module. tdb would be a pale shadow of itself had I used any other TUI framework. Fantastic work, Will.

• Microsoft for the Debug Adapter Protocol (DAP) and releasing its implementation in debugpy and the Python Debugger extension for Visual Studio Code as open source.

• Anthropic, for providing access to Claude Code through the Claude for Open Source program. tdb was made almost entirely with Claude Code.

Gallery

Videos:

• tdb basics views, keybindings, breakpoints, stepping, variable modification, call stack
• asyncio tasks inspect asyncio tasks and their wait graph; code mod to allow pause

Installation

pip install textual-debugger

or (better):

uv pip install textual-debugger

or run it without installing:

uvx --from textual-debugger tdb  my_program.py

Quick Start

# show comprehensive documentation in a terminal-based Markdown viewer
tdb --doc

# debug a script (stops at first line by default)
tdb my_program.py

# debug with arguments
tdb my_program.py arg1 arg2

# add breakpoints at lines 20 and 35 of `my_program.py` and line 14 of `module.py`
tdb -k 20 -k 35 -k module.py:14 my_program.py arg1 arg2

# use a specific virtualenv
tdb --python /path/to/venv/bin/python my_program.py

# step into, or stop at tracebacks in library code
tdb --no-just-my-code /path/to/venv/bin/python my_program.py

# run until first breakpoint or exit
tdb --no-stop-on-entry my_program.py

# run the debuggee in an external terminal
tdb --terminal xterm my_program.py

# attach to a remote Python program that has a debugpy server on port 5678
tdb -r remotehost:5678 my_program.py

# prevent `argparse` confusion by separating `tdb` switches from
# the debuggee switches by prefixing the debuggee with `--`
tdb --python /path/to/venv/bin/python -- my_program.py -k 17 --max 23.3

Alternatively, use the module entry point:

python -m tdb my_program.py

Layout

┌─ Header ──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
├─ Menu Bar (File | Configure | Help) ──────────────────┤
│                           │                           │
│   Code View               │  Console View (stdout)    │
│   (source + breakpoints)  ├───────────────────────────┤
│                           │  Variable View (tree)     │
│                           ├───────────────────────────┤
│                           │  Stack View (call stack)  │
├─ Status Bar ──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                           │                           │
│  Evaluate Console (REPL)  │  Breakpoint View (table)  │
│                           │                           │
├─ Footer (keybindings) ────────────────────────────────┤
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The status bar shows the current execution state (running, paused, breakpoint hit) and location. The footer shows the most relevant keybindings for the current mode.

Features

Navigation and Keybindings

The Code View shows syntax-highlighted Python source with line numbers. A cursor line (blue) tracks your position; the current execution line is highlighted in gold.

View focus shortcuts (global):

Key	View
Ctrl+C	Code View
Ctrl+O	Console View
Ctrl+E	Evaluate Console
Ctrl+V	Variable View
Ctrl+S	Stack View
Ctrl+B	Breakpoint View

Menu-bar shortcuts (global):

Alt+<first-letter> opens the corresponding tab in the menu bar.

Key	Menu
Alt+F	File (open a different script to debug)
Alt+C	Configure (Color Theme, Keybindings)
Alt+T	Threads
Alt+P	Processes
Alt+A	Async Tasks
Alt+H	Help (Documentation, About)

Navigation (vim-style by default):

By default the Code View is in Debug mode. Hit Escape to switch to Navigate mode In Navigate mode, you can move around the file with the following keys:

Key	Action
j / k	Move cursor down / up
5j, 10k	Move N lines down / up with count prefix
G	Go to end of file (with count: 42G jumps to line 42)
[ / ]	Jump to previous / next paragraph boundary
/	Search forward
?	Search backward
n / N	Next / previous search result
PageUp / PageDown	Scroll by page

Switch from Navigate back to Debug mode with Escape.

Note: Many terminals send the byte sequence ESC+f for Alt+F, which Textual's ANSI parser rewrites to Ctrl+Right (the readline "forward-word" convention). tdb binds both so Alt+F works as expected regardless.

Debugging Controls

Keybindings for stepping, continuing, pausing, and stack navigation match those for gdb/pdb, with some aliases and extras thrown in for convenience.

Key	Action
n	Step over (next line)
s	Step into function call
o / f / r	Step out of current function (also aliased as "finish" and "return")
c	Continue execution
p	Pause a running program
t	Run to cursor position
u / d	Navigate stack up (caller) / down (callee)
R	Restart the debug session
Ctrl+Q	Quit

Note: f ("finish") and r ("return") are both aliases for step-out. DAP's only "exit-a-function" primitive is stepOut, which runs the rest of the current function normally and stops at the return point. A true gdb-style immediate-return (skipping remaining code in the function without executing side effects) is not supported by DAP/debugpy.

Breakpoints

Click the gutter in the Code View to toggle a breakpoint, or press b in Debug mode.

Breakpoint indicators:

• Red dot: active breakpoint
• Yellow dot: conditional breakpoint
• Blue dot: disabled breakpoint

Conditional breakpoints: Double-click a breakpoint to open the condition editor. Set a Python expression (e.g., x > 10) and/or a hit count (pause on the Nth hit).

Breakpoint View actions:

• D : Disable / enable all breakpoints
• C : Clear all breakpoints

Breakpoints persist across session restarts.

Variable Inspection

The Variable View shows a tree of scopes (Locals, Globals) with all variables in the current frame. Expand nodes to drill into complex objects. Children are loaded lazily on demand. Variable values can be changed in the Evaluate Console.

Call Stack

The Stack View shows the full call stack. Click a frame to navigate to its source location and inspect its variables.

Evaluate Console

A REPL at the bottom-left evaluates expressions in the current scope:

>>> len(items)
42
>>> sorted(data, key=lambda x: x.priority)[:3]
[Item(priority=1), Item(priority=2), Item(priority=3)]

• Up/Down arrows cycle through expression history
• Tab triggers DAP-based completion
• Trailing ? shows help (signature + docstring):

>>> os.path.join?
(a, *p) : Join two or more pathname components...

Variable values set here are reflected in the running code.

Console Output

The Console View captures stdout (normal text) and stderr (red text) from the debuggee in real time.

If your program prints a lot, or prompts for input, or uses colors or terminal control codes, consider running it in an external terminal with --terminal for the best experience.

Crash Detection

When the debuggee raises an unhandled exception, tdb:

1. Shows a modal with the full traceback
2. Navigates the Code View to the crash line
3. Populates the Stack View with the exception's call stack
4. Lets you press R to restart or Escape to dismiss

Post-Mortem Exception Hook

You can have tdb pop open automatically when any Python program crashes without the need to launch through tdb up front. Install the hook once at the top of your program:

import sys
import tdb

sys.excepthook = tdb.exception_hook

When an uncaught exception reaches the hook, tdb:

1. Prints the standard Python traceback to stderr (so your scrollback still has a record)
2. Snapshots every frame in the traceback. This includes locals, plus one level of recursion into containers (dict, list, tuple, set) and objects with __dict__
3. Launches the TUI in post-mortem mode, inheriting the current terminal

In post-mortem mode you can:

• Navigate the call stack (u / d or the Stack View) and see each frame's locals
• Expand nested containers and object attributes in the Variables View
• Read the full traceback (including chained cause/context exceptions) in the Console View
• Jump around the source with the full Code View (syntax highlighting, goto-line, etc.)

Stepping, continue, breakpoints, restart, and Evaluate are disabled. The original interpreter is gone, the view is a frozen snapshot. Press q to exit.

The hook is a no-op when stdin/stdout aren't a tty (e.g. when your program is piped or run from cron), so it's safe to leave installed in production-style code. Snapshots are written to a temp file that is deleted as soon as tdb exits.

Snapshot depth / breadth is capped (5 levels, 50 children per container) to keep the capture cheap even for pathological object graphs; cycles are handled via identity memoization.

Live Breakpoint Hook

tdb has an improved implemenation of the standard breakpoint() function (or equivalently, pdb.set_trace()) used to pause at a specific line to inspect, then here= continuing--use tdb.breakpoint():

import tdb

def compute(n):
    total = sum(range(n))
    tdb.breakpoint()  # pause here and drop into tdb
    return total

Or hook it into the builtin breakpoint() function for the whole program:

PYTHONBREAKPOINT=tdb.breakpoint python myscript.py

When the call is reached, tdb starts an in-process debugpy server on a loopback port, spawns python -m tdb -r <port> as a subprocess so the TUI takes over the terminal, and pauses the calling thread at the line that called tdb.breakpoint() (the hook auto-steps out of its own helper so you land in your own frame, not inside breakpoint_hook.py). Stepping (n/s/o), continue, and setting/removing breakpoints all work normally; quitting tdb (Ctrl+Q) detaches without killing the program, and debugpy auto-resumes any threads still paused.

This differs from tdb.exception_hook in one way:

• Requires debugpy as a runtime dependency for the debuggee (only imported when the hook actually fires).

Unlike the exception hook (which works on a frozen snapshot), the breakpoint hook leaves the interpreter live: variable inspection reads real objects, and stepping/continue drive the user's program forward.

As with exception_hook, the call is a no-op when stdin/stdout aren't a tty, so it's safe to leave in code paths that sometimes run headless.

Async Task Inspector

For programs using asyncio, the menu bar shows an Async Tasks (N) label with the count of active tasks (updated each time the program stops). Click it to open a full-screen modal:

• Left pane: list of all tasks with name, state (pending/done/cancelled), awaiting primitive (Lock.acquire, Queue.get, asyncio.sleep, …), and coroutine
• Right pane: detail view with full stack trace and an expandable variable tree (same as the main Variables View) for the selected task
• Press g to switch the right pane to the wait graph — a tree showing each blocked task, the asyncio primitive it's parked on, and the task(s) holding that primitive. Cycles (deadlocks) are highlighted in red both in the task table and as a "Deadlock cycles" section at the top of the graph. Selecting a node in the tree highlights the corresponding task in the table.
• Navigate with arrow keys; press r to refresh, Escape to close

RPC equivalents:

# List all tasks
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8150/rpc \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"action":"list_tasks","params":[]}'

# Inspect a specific task by name
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8150/rpc \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"action":"inspect_task","params":["Task-1"]}'

# Show wait graph and any deadlock cycles
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8150/rpc \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"action":"wait_graph","params":[]}'

Thread Inspector

The menu bar shows a Threads (N) label when the program has 2 or more threads. Click it to open a modal with:

• Left pane: list of threads with ID and name (current thread shown in bold)
• Right pane: full stack trace and expandable variable tree for the selected thread's top frame
• Navigate with arrow keys; press r to refresh, Escape to close

RPC equivalents:

# List all threads (* marks current)
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8150/rpc \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"action":"list_threads","params":[]}'

# Inspect a specific thread by ID
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8150/rpc \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"action":"inspect_thread","params":[1]}'

Process Inspector

For programs using multiprocessing, the menu bar shows a Processes (N) label when there are 2 or more child processes. Click it to open a modal with:

• Left pane: list of child processes with PID, name, and status (alive/exited)
• Right pane: process details, full stack trace, and expandable variable tree for the selected process

tdb automatically attaches to child processes spawned via multiprocessing.Process, multiprocessing.Pool, or concurrent.futures.ProcessPoolExecutor. Breakpoints set in the parent are propagated to all child processes. When any process hits a breakpoint, all other processes are paused. Pressing p pauses all processes; c continues all.

Stepping in multi-process programs: step commands (n, s, o, f, r) apply only to the process whose stack is currently shown in the Code View (the one that hit the breakpoint). Other processes remain paused throughout the step. To step in a different process, open the Processes tab and select it first. The Code View then switches focus to that process, and subsequent step commands operate on it.

RPC equivalents:

# List all child processes
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8150/rpc \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"action":"list_processes","params":[]}'

# Inspect a specific process by name or PID
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8150/rpc \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"action":"inspect_process","params":["ForkPoolWorker-1"]}'

Remote Attach

Remote attachment is useful in situations where you can't launch the debuggee directly with tdb, for example, if it is launched from another program or runs in an environment where you can't install tdb. Two requirements must still be met though:

1. the debugpy package must be installed in the debuggee's Python environment
2. you need write access to the debuggee's code to add the following code at the point where you want to attach the debugger:

# In the target program:
import debugpy
debugpy.listen(("0.0.0.0", 5678))
print("Waiting for tdb to attach on port 5678...")
debugpy.wait_for_client()  # optional: pause until debugger connects
print("tdb is attached!")

When the debuggee runs and hits the debugpy.wait_for_client() line, it starts a debugpy server listening on port 5678. Attach tdb to it with the -r switch, specifying the host and port. If the debuggee is on the same machine, you can omit the host or use localhost. This example assumes the debuggee runs on 192.168.1.10 and listens on port 5678:

# Attach from tdb:
tdb -r 5678   # to localhost
tdb -r 192.168.1.10:5678

# With breakpoints:
tdb -r 5678 -k my_program.py:42

All debugging features (breakpoints, stepping, variable inspection, threads, processes, async tasks) work in remote attach mode. The Code View automatically navigates to the source file when the program stops.

External Terminal Support

Some Python programs, notably text user interfaces, use terminal control codes and require direct access to the terminal to function properly. Such programs can be debugged with tdb by having it launch the debuggee in a separate terminal:

tdb --terminal xterm my_tui_app.py

The debuggee runs in a separate window of the specified terminal. Supported choices: xterm, konsole, gnome-terminal, ghostty, kitty, iterm2, warp, wezterm, terminator. The selected terminal must be on PATH. Debugging proceeds as usual in the terminal where tdb was invoked.

This feature only works in graphical environments where external terminals are available.

Keybinding Schemes

tdb --keybindings vim my_program.py    # default
tdb --keybindings emacs my_program.py
tdb --keybindings default my_program.py

The keybinding choice is saved to ~/.config/tdb/config.json and remembered for subsequent runs. View the full keybinding reference from the menu: Configure > Keybindings.

JSON-RPC Server Mode

tdb includes a built-in debug server for programmatic control which is useful for scripted debugging, CI pipelines, or AI-assisted debugging workflows.

Headless Mode (no TUI)

python -m tdb --headless my_program.py &

The server listens on http://127.0.0.1:8150/rpc (change with --server-port).

Dual Mode (TUI + server)

tdb --server my_program.py

Both the interactive TUI and the JSON-RPC server run simultaneously.

RPC Protocol

Send POST requests with {"action": "...", "params": [...]}. Responses return {"timestamp": "...", "success": true/false, "value": "..."}.

# Check status
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8150/rpc \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"action":"status","params":[]}'

# Set a breakpoint
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8150/rpc \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"action":"set_breakpoint","params":["/abs/path/to/file.py:42"]}'

# Continue execution
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8150/rpc \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"action":"continue","params":[]}'

# Inspect variables
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8150/rpc \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"action":"inspect","params":["x", "len(items)", "type(result)"]}'

# Shut down
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8150/rpc \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"action":"quit","params":[]}'

All RPC Actions

Action	Params	Description
help	[]	List all actions
status	[]	Current state with location
set_breakpoint	["file:line"] or ["file:line", "condition", "hit_condition"]	Set a breakpoint
remove_breakpoint	["file:line"]	Remove a breakpoint
list_breakpoints	[]	Show all breakpoints
continue	[]	Resume execution
next	[]	Step over
step_in	[]	Step into
step_out	[]	Step out
pause	[]	Pause execution
inspect	["expr1", "expr2", ...]	Evaluate multiple expressions
evaluate	["expression"]	Evaluate a single expression
stack_up	[]	Move up the call stack
stack_down	[]	Move down the call stack
get_stack_trace	[]	Full call stack
get_output	[]	Drain buffered stdout/stderr
get_source	["file_path"]	Read a source file
list_threads	[]	List all threads
inspect_thread	[thread_id]	Inspect a specific thread
list_processes	[]	List child processes (multiprocessing)
inspect_process	["name_or_pid"]	Inspect a specific child process
list_tasks	[]	List all asyncio tasks
inspect_task	["task_name"]	Inspect a specific asyncio task
wait_graph	[]	Show wait graph + any deadlock cycles
restart	[]	Restart session (preserves breakpoints)
quit	[]	Shut down

SSE Event Stream

Subscribe to real-time debug events:

curl -N http://127.0.0.1:8150/events

Events: initialized, stopped, continued, terminated, exited, output. Each is JSON with event, data, and timestamp fields.

CLI Reference

usage: tdb [-h] [-v/--version] [-r [HOST:]PORT] [--cwd CWD] [--no-stop-on-entry]
           [--no-just-my-code] [--no-subprocess] [--python PYTHON]
           [-d/--doc] [--doc-text] [--keybindings {default,vim,emacs}]
           [--terminal {xterm,konsole,gnome-terminal,ghostty,kitty,iterm2,warp,wezterm,terminator}]
           [--server] [--headless] [-k FILE:LINE|LINE] [--server-port SERVER_PORT]
           [program] [args ...]

Flag	Description
-r HOST:PORT	Attach to a remote debugpy server
-k, `--breakpoint FILE:LINE	LINE`
--no-stop-on-entry	Do not pause at the first line (default: stop on entry)
--cwd DIR	Working directory for the debuggee
--python PATH	Python interpreter for the debuggee
--no-just-my-code	Step into stdlib/site-packages code instead of skipping it
(default: skipped). On uncaught exceptions, the crash modal always shows the full traceback
including library frames, regardless of this flag.
--no-subprocess	Disable debugpy's subprocess tracking (use when debugging tdb itself)
--terminal TERM	Run debuggee in the named external terminal: xterm, konsole,
gnome-terminal, ghostty, kitty, iterm2, warp, wezterm, or terminator
--keybindings SCHEME	default, vim, or emacs (saved to config)
--server	Enable JSON-RPC server alongside TUI
--headless	JSON-RPC server only, no TUI
--server-port PORT	Server port (default: 8150)

Configuration

On UNIX-like systems (Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, etc.), tdb stores configuration and breakpoints in ~/.config/tdb/. On Windows, it uses %APPDATA%\tdb\.

File	Contents
config.json	User preferences (keybinding scheme)
breakpoints.json	Breakpoints from previous sessions, keyed by project directory

Breakpoints are saved on exit and restored when debugging a program in the same directory. Each project's breakpoints are independent.

Tech Stack

• textual : TUI framework
• debugpy : Debug Adapter Protocol implementation
• pygments : Syntax highlighting
• FastAPI + uvicorn : JSON-RPC server

License

MIT

Known Problems

This command

tdb --terminal gnome-terminal --python /path/to/venv/matplotlib/bin/python3 examples/double_pendulum.py

either ignores breakpoints or crashes after showing the first frame. The --python argument must point to an installation with matplotlib.