edb: Debug Ethereum Smart Contracts at the Source Level

Overview

EDB replays Ethereum transactions and lets developers inspect execution in terms of Solidity source code, rather than relying only on opcode-level traces. It addresses the difficulty of connecting low-level EVM activity to source lines and reconstructing high-level variables, especially when compiler optimizations make source maps unreliable.

EDB instruments Solidity source during compilation to provide debugging hooks. It is intended for developers investigating on-chain behavior, with a browser-based interface by default and a terminal UI option.

Key Features

• Step through execution at the Solidity source level.
• Inspect local variables, struct fields, and array elements.
• Evaluate expressions against the current execution state.
• Move backward and forward through execution history.
• Set conditional or unconditional breakpoints and expression watchpoints.
• Replay transactions from Ethereum mainnet or testnets using RPC endpoints.
• Choose a browser UI or keyboard-driven terminal UI.

Use Cases

• A Solidity developer can trace a deployed contract transaction to understand how source-level control flow produced an unexpected result.
• A security researcher can inspect variable values and execution history while investigating suspicious contract behavior.
• A smart-contract auditor can set breakpoints or watchpoints to examine when a value changes during a transaction.
• A developer working over SSH or without a browser can use the terminal interface to replay and inspect a transaction.

Getting Started

Install a prebuilt binary:

curl -sSL https://install.edb.sh | bash

Then replay a transaction with an Ethereum RPC endpoint:

edb --rpc-urls <RPC_ENDPOINTS> replay <TRANSACTION_HASH>

See the README for build instructions, UI options, and additional details.

Considerations

• EDB is under active development, so features and APIs may change.
• Transaction replay requires access to Ethereum RPC endpoints to fetch on-chain state. The README notes that its fallback public endpoints may be slow or unreliable, and recommends providing your own endpoints.
• Building from source requires stable Rust and Bun, while the installer provides prebuilt binaries without those toolchains.
• The AGPL-3.0 license is relevant when evaluating the project for use or distribution.