Show HN: I built a post-mortem debugger for native Windows x64/x86 crashes
Hello HN! I've spent years debugging Windows crashes with tools that were either friendly but limited (e.g. Visual Studio) or powerful but archaic (e.g. WinDbg). I developed patterns and methods for understanding what was going on, and decided to build it into a much more effective debugging tool called ForensicDbg. I built a modern interface to minimize the friction when debugging. All of the data shown to you is analyzed, interpreted, and presented to you clearly, so you can focus on what matters. Everything is interlinked so you can quickly and intuitivly navigate through the process space. ForensicDbg comes with an MCP server which allows for agenic debugging. The work done to interpret and interlink your data also benefits AI tools. It removes the risk of hallucinations while building a stable foundation for them to work from without spending tokens. If you want to try it out you can sign up and get a free beta license here: https://www.forensicdbg.com/beta
Discussion Highlights (3 comments)
neitsa
While I really do appreciate having multiple choices when it comes to tooling I beg to differ when saying that windbg is archaic. As someone who is spending a lot of time with windbg, I think it's fair to say they really put some effort in it: TTD (time travel debugging), JS scriping, Linux core dump support, new type of queries and the data model, new commands, and an upcoming integrated MCP (functionalities \ function names visible in the data model). That being said, there's a lot of baggage for such an old software and there are definitely some pain points. But as said, I like to have a choice (I sometimes use x64dbg for example), so the more, the merrier! I'll definitely give yours a try. Good luck for the beta and the release!
_dky
Reminds of CANASTA for VMS operating system. I never used it but heard many war stories where developers and support would analyze complex crashes in cluster software. https://cdn.aaai.org/IAAI/1991/IAAI91-013.pdf
kjksf
consider this a constructive criticism: improve the landing page. The video is a good idea but not like this. It's both large and I can't see anything, just things moving. When I fullscreen, instead of getting larger video, I get the same thing. Record a video (and upload to youtube) that does a well-paced walkthrough of doing an analysis, with narration, maybe demonstrating how it's unique / different from windbg.