Debugging Agents

Debugging agentic systems requires fundamentally different approaches from debugging traditional software because agent behavior is non-deterministic, multi-step, and depends on both the model's reasoning and the tool responses it receives. The core workflow involves inspecting traces (the full sequence of thoughts, actions, and observations), comparing expected versus actual tool call parameters, and identifying where the agent's reasoning diverged from the intended path. Unlike traditional debugging where you set breakpoints in deterministic code, agent debugging often involves replaying the same prompt and getting different behavior each time, which makes trace logging and structured observability essential infrastructure rather than optional tooling.