feat: Function-level tracing with Frame Lifetime Trace (ADI / FSE 2026)

[acailic]

Paper Reference

• Title: Agent-centric Debugging Interface (ADI)
• Authors: Jiahong Xiang, Xiaoyang Xu, Xiaopan Chu, et al.
• Year: 2026
• URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.24212
• Venue: FSE 2026 (ACM SIGSOFT Conference on Foundations of Software Engineering)

Paper Summary

Introduces a function-level interaction paradigm for cost-efficient autonomous debugging. Powered by Frame Lifetime Trace — a comprehensive data structure encapsulating a function's stateful execution trace with high-level navigational commands.

Proposed Feature

Implement Frame Lifetime Tracing for granular function-level debugging:

Core Capabilities

• Function-Level Traces: Capture not just agent decisions but individual function calls with their full state
• Frame Inspection: Inspect function arguments, return values, and intermediate state at each call
• Navigation Commands: Jump to next/previous function call, filter by function name, search within frames
• Cost Analysis: Show per-function token cost and latency breakdown

Technical Approach

• Extend the SDK's auto-patch system to capture function-level traces (not just agent-level)
• Implement Frame Lifetime Trace data structure matching the paper's design
• Build frame inspection panel in the frontend with collapsible function calls
• Add cost analysis aggregation per function

Impact

Provides the granularity needed for debugging complex agent code where the issue is inside a specific function, not just at the decision level. The FSE 2026 venue validates this as a top-tier software engineering contribution.

Labels

enhancement, paper-inspired, high-priority