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wtf is pylintdebug?

brycepg/pylintdebug — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-08-15 · repo last pushed 2018-07-04

PythonAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5DormantSetup · easy

TL;DR

A diagnostic tool that wraps Pylint to expose its internal decision-making and inference logic, helping developers debug why warnings fire or don't.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Wraps Pylint
      Shows message sources
      Traces inference
      Interactive debugger
    Tech stack
      Python
      Pylint
      Astroid
    Use cases
      Debug false positives
      Write custom rules
      Contribute to Pylint
    Audience
      Pylint plugin authors
      Pylint contributors
      Astroid contributors
    Key features
      reveal_inference function
      Inference inspection mode
      Message origin tracing

Code map

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Why would anyone build with this?

REASON 1

Trace why a specific Pylint warning is firing on code that seems correct.

REASON 2

Debug a custom Pylint plugin rule that triggers when it shouldn't.

REASON 3

Inspect what astroid infers about variable types and function returns at a given point in your code.

REASON 4

Step through astroid's inference logic line by line in an interactive debugger.

What's in the stack?

PythonPylintAstroid

How it stacks up

brycepg/pylintdebug0verflowme/learnings0verflowme/r2ai
LanguagePythonPythonPython
Last pushed2018-07-042022-06-182025-11-19
MaintenanceDormantDormantQuiet
Setup difficultyeasyeasymoderate
Complexity2/51/53/5
Audiencedeveloperresearcherdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you spin it up?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Requires Pylint and astroid to be installed since it patches them on the fly.

Wtf does this do

Pylintdebug is a tool for developers who work on or with Pylint, the popular Python code checker. It helps you figure out why Pylint is behaving in unexpected ways, for example, why it's flagging code that seems fine, or missing problems it should be catching. Instead of guessing what's going on inside Pylint, this tool gives you a window into its internal decision-making. At a high level, the tool runs Pylint on a file you specify but inserts extra debugging hooks along the way. You can ask it to show where Pylint is generating its messages, which helps you trace why a particular warning appeared. You can also turn on a mode that prints information about "inference", which is how Pylint's companion library, astroid, tries to understand what your Python code actually does (what type a variable is, what a function returns, and so on). It also adds a special function called reveal_inference that you can insert into code to inspect what astroid knows at a given point. The people who'd use this are typically developers writing custom Pylint rules, debugging false positives, or contributing to Pylint and astroid themselves. For instance, if you wrote a custom Pylint plugin and your rule keeps firing when it shouldn't, you'd use this tool to trace exactly where and why the message is being triggered. It can also drop you into an interactive debugger to step through astroid's inference logic line by line. The project is straightforward and narrowly scoped, it's not a general-purpose linter or a replacement for Pylint, just a diagnostic companion. The README doesn't go into much detail about edge cases or limitations, but the core idea is simple: it wraps Pylint, patches it on the fly, and surfaces information that's normally hidden.

Yoink these prompts

Prompt 1
Install pylintdebug and run it on my Python file to show where each Pylint message is being generated, so I can understand why a false positive is appearing.
Prompt 2
Use pylintdebug with inference mode enabled on this snippet so I can see what astroid infers about the types and return values in my code.
Prompt 3
Insert the reveal_inference function into my code at the point where my custom Pylint rule fires unexpectedly, then run pylintdebug to inspect what astroid knows at that location.
Prompt 4
Run pylintdebug with the interactive debugger option to step through astroid's inference logic for this function and find where the type inference goes wrong.

Frequently asked questions

wtf is pylintdebug?

A diagnostic tool that wraps Pylint to expose its internal decision-making and inference logic, helping developers debug why warnings fire or don't.

What language is pylintdebug written in?

Mainly Python. The stack also includes Python, Pylint, Astroid.

Is pylintdebug actively maintained?

Dormant — no commits in 2+ years (last push 2018-07-04).

How hard is pylintdebug to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is pylintdebug for?

Mainly developer.

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