Part 1: Revisiting the foundation for code investigation

Being able to investigate code is one of the most important skills a developer can have. Whether you're fixing a bug, adding a new feature, or just trying to understand how things work, knowing how to read and explore your app's behavior is key.

In this part of the book, we go back to the basics—debugging and logging—but with a fresh twist. These classic tools have helped developers for decades. Debugging lets you pause and step through code, while logs give you a record of what happened. But today, something new is changing the game: AI.

What if you could ask an AI to pick the best place to set a breakpoint? Or to read your logs and explain what went wrong? Or to summarize a messy piece of code so you can understand it faster?

This is no longer science fiction. In the pages ahead, you’ll see how traditional tools and AI work together to make troubleshooting easier, faster, and even a bit more fun.

Chapter 1 explains why code investigation matters. Chapters 2 to 4 dive into techniques—both familiar and new—that will help you solve problems with more confidence.