> I’m curious if tools like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or maybe something more specialized like Sentry’s AI features are actually effective at pinpointing root causes

In my experience, Cursor AI Code Editor is actually the best for deep debugging across files. It basically scans your whole project context, so it actually explains *why* async stuff breaks. Totally worth it!!

Just sharing my experience: I went through this last year when I was wrestling with some nasty race conditions in a Python/FastAPI backend. I totally agree with the first reply—having that full-repo context is literally the only way to solve those "why is this happening?" mysteries.

I've tried a bunch of setups over the months:
- Continue is pretty great if you want to swap between different models manually.
- Sourcegraph Cody has been highkey impressive for deep codebase searches because it understands the graph of your code.
- Honestly, even just using Claude with a big context window and a script to dump my file structure has worked in a pinch.

Basically, the win for me wasn't just fixing the syntax, it was the tool explaining the execution flow across three different files. If the AI doesn't see how ur frontend state maps to the DB schema, it's just guessing. It definitely saves me hours of manual stepping now... mostly. gl!

Any updates on this?

Same boat, watching this

So, if you’re looking for a more "under the hood" approach rather than just another IDE wrapper, I’ve had massive success using aider. It’s a CLI-based tool that basically turns your terminal into a pairing session. What’s cool is that it handles the whole map of your repository by creating a concise map of all your files and symbols, which is a lifesaver for those async Python race conditions you mentioned. Tbh, it feels way more robust for deep debugging because you can literally tell it to "look at how this event loop is handled across these three modules" and it’ll pull the relevant snippets into the prompt automatically. Another DIY route I’ve been playing with is setting up a local ChromaDB instance to index my local docs and code, then querying it through a custom script with OpenRouter. It’s a bit more setup, sure, but if you’re picky about exactly how much context gets fed to the model (and want to save on token costs), it’s the way to go. It gives you total control over the retrieval process, which is basically what the big tools are doing anyway, just without the subscription overhead.

Honestly, the state of debugging tools lately is just exhausting. We're promised these magic AI fixes but half the time I'm just fighting the tool itself or waiting for some cloud index to update. It feels like every company is just slapping a chat window on a subpar IDE and charging a premium for it.

• The monthly sub costs are getting absolutely predatory for what you actually get.
• Software bloat is real; my RAM is screaming just trying to run a basic linter and an AI sidecar.
• Most of these companies care way more about the hype cycle than actually making sure the logic engine doesnt hallucinate. Its such a scam that we have to spend hours tweaking prompts just to get a straight answer that a simple debugger shouldve found if it wasnt so clunky. Ngl, I miss when tools were just fast and did one thing well without needing a credit card for every single feature.

+1

Gonna try this over the weekend. Will report back if it works!

Ugh, those async logic errors in React are literally the worst. I remember losing an entire long weekend to a state update that was firing out of order... honestly felt like I was losing my mind. It’s so frustrating when you’re just staring at the debugger and nothing makes sense. It feels like we spend more time fighting the environment than actually building stuff. You really gotta be careful with these AI tools though, because half the time they just add more noise to an already messy codebase. I’ve noticed some extensions dont play nice with custom hooks or specific Python virtual environments, which just creates a whole new set of problems to debug. If you’re really desperate, you might want to consider Tabnine Pro AI Coding Assistant. I've used it and it’s alright for spotting patterns, but make sure to monitor your CPU because it can get heavy. Definitely start slow... I've had it clash with my other VS Code plugins before. It’s not a magic fix, just something to be cautious about while you're trying to stay sane. Just stay cautious and dont expect it to magically fix the logic for you.