microsoft / microsoft/vscode-js-debug

Loosen side effect check in custom strings

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#2,285 0 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

@connor4312 is already working on this.

Since Oct 19, 2025.

feature-request
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Description

In the Variables and Watch panels my variables are often displayed as just a type + fields, e.g.
> x = complex {r: number, i: number}
despite all attempts to request something more helpful.

After looking at the logs it seems to be that under some conditions the request enables throwOnSideEffect and decides even the simplest of toString()s might do something scary.

So my request is for a flag in the launch script that disables enabling throwOnSideEffect in these requests.

Alternatively, could there be some other way of asserting that the call is safe - maybe (yet) another symbol, like "debug.safedescription" - that is a promise that the debugger can safely use it?

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