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Debugging

The AlgoKit TypeScript Utilities package provides debugging tools for simulating and tracing transactions on the Algorand blockchain. These tools and methods are optimized for developers who are building applications on Algorand and need to test and debug their smart contracts via AlgoKit AVM Debugger extension.

Configuration

The config.ts file contains the UpdatableConfig class which manages and updates configuration settings for the AlgoKit project. The class has the following attributes:

  • debug: Indicates whether debug mode is enabled.
  • projectRoot: The path to the project root directory. This can be ignored if you use algokit-utils inside an algokit compliant project (containing .algokit.toml file). For non-algokit compliant projects, simply provide the path to the folder where you want to store sourcemaps and traces to be used with AlgoKit AVM Debugger. Alternatively, you can set the value via the ALGOKIT_PROJECT_ROOT environment variable.
  • traceAll: Indicates whether to trace all operations. Defaults to false, this means that when debug mode is enabled, any (or all) application client calls performed via algokit-utils will store responses from simulate endpoint. These files are called traces and can be used with AlgoKit AVM Debugger to debug TEAL source codes and a large variety of transaction types in the atomic groups. The default behavior will perform persistence of traces only on scenarios where any of the transaction groups emitted by an ApplicationClient or sendAtomicTransactionComposer method fails.
  • traceBufferSizeMb: The size of the trace buffer in megabytes. By default, it uses 256 megabytes. When the output folder containing debug trace files exceeds the size, the oldest files are removed to optimize storage consumption. This is useful when running a long-running application and wanting to keep the trace files for debugging purposes but also be mindful of storage consumption.
  • maxSearchDepth: The maximum depth to search for an algokit config file. By default, it will traverse at most 10 folders searching for .algokit.toml file, which will be used to determine the algokit compliant project root path.

The configure method can be used to set these attributes.

To enable debug mode in your project, you can configure it as follows:

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import { Config } from '@algorandfoundation/algokit-utils';
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Config.configure({
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  debug: true,
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});

Debugging Utilities

Debugging utilities can be used to simplify gathering artifacts to be used with AlgoKit AVM Debugger in non-algokit compliant projects. The following methods are provided:

  • persistSourceMaps: This method persists the sourcemaps for the given sources as AlgoKit AVM Debugger compliant artifacts. It accepts an array of PersistSourceMapInput objects. Each object can either contain rawTeal, in which case the function will execute a compile to obtain byte code, or it can accept an object of type CompiledTeal provided by algokit, which is used for source codes that have already been compiled and contain the traces. It also accepts the project’s root directory, an Algodv2 client to perform the compilation, and a boolean indicating whether to include the source files in the output.
  • simulateAndPersistResponse: This method simulates the atomic transactions using the provided AtomicTransactionComposer object and Algodv2 object and persists the simulation response to an AlgoKit AVM Debugger compliant JSON file. It accepts the AtomicTransactionComposer with transaction(s) loaded, an Algodv2 client to perform the simulation, the root directory of the project, and the buffer size in megabytes.

To enable debug mode with extra trace persistence for AVM VSCode Debugger, you can configure it as follows:

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import { Config } from '@algorandfoundation/algokit-utils';
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Config.configure({
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  debug: true,
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  traceAll: true, // if ignored, will only trace failed atomic transactions and application client calls
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  projectRoot: '/path/to/project/root', // if ignored, will try to find the project root automatically
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});

Trace filename format

The trace files are named in a specific format to provide useful information about the transactions they contain. The format is as follows:

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`${timestamp}_lr${lastRound}_${transactionTypes}.trace.avm.json`;

Where:

  • timestamp: The time when the trace file was created, in ISO 8601 format, with colons and periods removed.
  • lastRound: The last round when the simulation was performed.
  • transactionTypes: A string representing the types and counts of transactions in the atomic group. Each transaction type is represented as ${count}#${type}, and different transaction types are separated by underscores.

For example, a trace file might be named 20220301T123456Z_lr1000_2#pay_1#axfer.trace.avm.json, indicating that it was created at 2022-03-01T12:34:56Z, the last round was 1000, and the atomic group contained 2 payment transactions and 1 asset transfer transaction.