Runtime Verification achieved Milestone 2 on its SCF-funded WebAssembly debugger for Soroban: a formal-semantics-grounded execution tracer and testnet node. Milestone 3 (DAP server, VS Code and Cursor plugins) is underway, with completion expected in 3 weeks. The debugger enables step-through execution, breakpoint debugging, and memory inspection for Rust-compiled smart contracts.
Runtime Verification, recipient of an SCF grant, is building a professional-grade WebAssembly debugger for Soroban grounded in formal semantics rather than ad-hoc engineering. The project progresses through three milestones: Milestone 1 added tracing to WebAssembly semantics; Milestone 2 delivered a testnet node and general-purpose Wasm execution backend; Milestone 3, nearly complete, adds a Debug Adapter Protocol server and IDE plugins for VS Code and Cursor. Unlike conventional debuggers, this tool is derived from pre-existing formal operational semantics of WebAssembly and Soroban, giving it unique advantages: it doubles as a reference implementation of Soroban's runtime, enables cross-testing of production code against formal specifications, and compounds correctness guarantees. Once shipped, developers will set breakpoints directly in Rust source, replay transactions locally, and inspect full Wasm runtime state at any point—capabilities standard in mature ecosystems but absent from Soroban until now.
