Rust developers want better debugging tools

Rust’s first debugging survey gathered more than 2,300 responses. Developers reported trouble inspecting values, understanding async execution, and stepping through generated state machines. The findings highlight a practical gap: memory safety does not make failures easy to diagnose. Better visualizers and cross-language debugging support are among the areas the report identifies.

The Rust Blog · Sep 7, 2026

Why it matters

Worth considering when planning a Rust migration: include the debugging experience, not just runtime performance and memory safety.

More context

The report introduces debugger visualizers, which can improve how types appear in supported debuggers. For a library or service, try debugging a real failure early and record where setup, value inspection, or stack traces become difficult.

Keep in mind

This is a voluntary survey dominated by intermediate and advanced respondents. Its percentages should not be treated as representative of all Rust developers.

Original read