Buglyst Blog
Learn to debug under pressure.
Playbooks for fast pattern recognition, guides for the full investigation, and articles for the engineering judgment around the edges.
17 playbooks · 509 guides · 95 articles · 12 linked practice labs ·skip to practice
Fast pattern recognition for the production failures engineers see most often.
3 playbooks in Backend & APIs
Debugging Retry Bugs
Retry issues often hide the first failure and create duplicate work.
Debugging Idempotency Bugs
How to debug duplicate writes when clients, webhooks, or workers retry after ambiguous failures.
Debugging Payment Races
How to reason about duplicate charges, concurrent refunds, and payment workflow compensation.
Structured investigations for the failure modes engineers meet in real systems.
Express req.body Undefined: Body-Parser Not Working
Debug why Express `req.body` returns undefined even after installing body-parser. Covers middleware order, missing Content-Type, and URL encoding issues.
Multer File Upload Not Working in Express: A Debugging Guide
A hands-on guide to debugging common Multer issues in Express applications: missing files, empty req.file, corrupted uploads, and silent failures.
Debugging GraphQL N+1 Queries with DataLoader Batching
When DataLoader batching fails, GraphQL resolvers generate cascading database queries that kill performance. This guide shows you how to find, fix, and verify the N+1 pattern with concrete tools.
Django Static Files Not Serving in Production
A practical debugging guide for when Django fails to serve static files (CSS, JS, images) in production, covering common misconfigurations and fixes.
FastAPI Dependency Injection Fails: Missing `async def` and Scope Mismatches
A practical guide to debugging FastAPI dependency injection errors caused by missing async def, incorrect scope, or parameter mismatches.
Django Celery Task Not Executing: A Field Guide to Silent Failures
Diagnose why your Celery task won't run in Django — from broker misconfigurations to worker crashes. Commands, logs, and fixes included.
Long-form thinking on debugging habits, observability, and the systems around the bug.
Debugging Third-Party API Issues: A Systematic Approach
A practical guide to diagnosing and fixing third-party API integration problems, with real-world examples and a step-by-step debugging framework.
Debugging Webhook Delivery Failures: What the Logs Don't Tell You
HTTP 200 doesn't mean your webhook was processed. A practical guide to the network and middleware layers that silently drop webhooks.
Debugging HTTP Headers with curl: From Basic Flags to Packet-Level Inspection
A practical guide to inspecting HTTP request and response headers with curl, covering basic flags, debugging tricky issues, and understanding what your headers are really doing.
Debugging WebSocket Real-Time Features: Packet Loss, Reconnect Storms, and Silent Failures
WebSocket debugging goes beyond console.log. I cover packet capture with tcpdump, reconnect backoff strategies, and a war story about a silent failure that took down a production chat feature.
Rest API Design Mistakes That Inject Bugs Into Your System
Most API bugs aren't in the implementation—they're baked into the contract. Here are the design errors I've seen cause the most production incidents.
Idempotency Keys: The Safety Net Your Payment API Needs
How idempotency keys prevent double charges, lost refunds, and data corruption in payment APIs. With real-world examples and edge cases you haven't considered.