@dbalster/gdb-plugin

100% AI-generated proof-of-concept. This project was requested as: build a TypeScript plugin that uses the GDB/MI protocol and exposes all debugging tools needed for an AI agent to debug programs with GDB. Every line of code was written by an AI language model.

A Kilo / OpenCode TypeScript plugin that provides a full GDB/MI debugging interface via GDB's Machine Interface protocol.

Features

• 30+ debugging tools: init, load, run, continue, interrupt, step, next, finish, breakpoints, watchpoints, catchpoints, backtrace, locals, evaluate, memory, registers, disassemble, threads, and more
• GDB/MI protocol: Full MI tokenizer/parser with async record handling
• State persistence: Session state saved to /tmp/kilo-gdb/state.json across restarts
• Process management: Start, stop, attach, detach, and core dump support
• Reverse execution: record/reverse-step/next/continue/finish
• Variable objects: Create and watch expressions across debugging steps

Installation

npm install -g @dbalster/gdb-plugin

Usage in Kilo/OpenCode

Copy or symlink gdb.ts into your .kilo/plugins/ directory:

mkdir -p ~/project/.kilo/plugins
cp node_modules/@dbalster/gdb-plugin/dist/gdb.js ~/project/.kilo/plugins/gdb.js

Then reference it in .kilo/kilo.json:

{
  "plugins": ["./plugins/gdb.js"]
}

Tools Provided

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | gdbInit | Start GDB with a binary executable | | gdbLoad | Load a new binary/symbol file | | gdbRun | Run/restart the debugged program | | gdbContinue | Continue execution | | gdbInterrupt | Interrupt the running program | | gdbStep | Step into next source line | | gdbNext | Step over next source line | | gdbFinish | Step out of current function | | gdbBreak | Set a breakpoint | | gdbBreakpointList | List all breakpoints | | gdbBreakpointDelete | Delete breakpoint(s) | | gdbBreakpointEnable / gdbBreakpointDisable | Toggle breakpoints | | gdbBreakpointCondition | Set/clear breakpoint condition | | gdbWatch | Set a watchpoint | | gdbCatch | Set a catchpoint | | gdbBacktrace | Print call stack | | gdbLocals | Show local variables | | gdbEvaluate | Evaluate an expression | | gdbSet | Set a variable/memory value | | gdbDisplay / gdbDisplayList / gdbDisplayDelete / gdbDisplayUpdate | Variable objects | | gdbThreads / gdbSelectThread | Thread management | | gdbSelectFrame | Select stack frame | | gdbDisassemble | Disassemble code | | gdbRegisters | Show CPU registers | | gdbStatus | Session status overview | | gdbArgs / gdbCwd / gdbEnv | Program setup | | gdbSignal | Send a signal | | gdbAttach / gdbDetach | Process attach/detach | | gdbCore | Generate core dump | | gdbSource | Source a GDB script | | gdbPstack | Stack traces for all threads | | gdbRecord / gdbReverse | Reverse execution | | gdbFind / gdbMem | Memory search and dump | | gdbJump / gdbReturn | Execution control flow | | gdbExit | Terminate GDB session | | gdbRaw / gdbInfo / gdbExec | Raw/CLI command access |

Requirements

• GDB installed on the system
• A compiled binary with debug symbols (-g flag)

License

MIT