Debugging & Mistakes

Using the dev debugger, and what the engine does when you make a mistake.

Dev Debugger

The dev debugger is available in development builds only (npm run dev). Press ` (backtick) to toggle it open.

Panels

Panel	Contents
Trace	Recent passage navigation history (read-only).
Vars	All $ global variables with live editable values. Temp vars (_name) from the last passage execution appear below as a read-only section.
Passages	Searchable list of all passages in the game (display only).
Hooks	Wrappers and hook injections registered for the current passage.

Below the tab panels sits a permanent Eval section, always visible regardless of which tab is active. Type any Ana expression or macro call and press Ctrl+Enter (or the Run button). Results accumulate as a scrollable history log; click any past entry to re-populate the textarea.

The debugger state (open/closed, active panel) persists across page reloads via localStorage.

When You Make a Mistake

Ana's error behavior, in one place:

Situation	What happens
(set:) a variable to a different type than declared	Hard runtime error, surfaced in the dev console with passage + line.
(get:) a property that doesn't exist	Returns undefined and never throws. (if: (get: $item, _id, "poisoned")) is just falsy.
(goto:) / (update:) / (action:) to a passage that doesn't exist	Logged as a navigation error; in dev the validator flags it ahead of time. In production the navigation is a no-op rather than a crash.
Rendering to a zone the current layout doesn't define	The output is discarded with a console warning (dev).
Overlapping schedule entries for the same group	Throws at registration time, so you catch it during authoring.
(break:) / (continue:) outside a loop	Ignored, with a dev warning and a validator warning.

Run npm run parse and open the dev debugger (backtick) early and often; most mistakes surface there before a player ever sees them.