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Show HN: Wirebrowser – A JavaScript debugger with breakpoint-driven heap search

(github.com)
70 points fcavallarin | 2 comments | 10 Dec 25 14:30 UTC | HN request time: 0.04s | source

Hi HN!

I'm building a JavaScript debugger called Wirebrowser. It combines network inspection, request rewriting, heap snapshots, and live object search.

The main experimental feature is BDHS (Breakpoint-Driven Heap Search): it hooks into the JavaScript debugger and automatically captures a heap snapshot at every pause and performs a targeted search for the value or structure of interest. This reveals the moment a value appears in memory and the user-land function responsible for creating it.

Another interesting feature is the Live Object Search: it inspects runtime objects (not just snapshots), supports regex and object similarity, and lets you patch objects directly at runtime.

Whitepaper: https://fcavallarin.github.io/wirebrowser/BDHS-Origin-Trace

Feedback very welcome, especially on whether BDHS would help your debugging workflow.

1. Sn0wCoder ◴[11 Dec 25 07:48 UTC] No.46228742[source]▶
Only had a minute to install, build and use the app; but wow this is great! Thank you for building and showing us Wirebrowser. Are you building this because other tools do not meet your needs? I have not run across any tool(s) that combine all of these features into one package so hoping you all success with this release.
replies(1): >>46229106 #
2. fcavallarin ◴[11 Dec 25 08:55 UTC] No.46229106[source]▶
Thanks! Yes - the motivation came from repeatedly switching between DevTools, Burp, and ad-hoc scripts whenever I needed to understand how an object ended up in the heap.

Wirebrowser started as an experiment to unify those workflows and make it possible to follow those values directly instead of stitching together multiple tools. It grew from the pain points I kept running into.