BTrace Hands-On Tutorials
July 14, 2026 ยท View on GitHub
Scenario-driven, copy-paste-friendly walkthroughs. Each tutorial makes a time-boxed promise,
uses the same zero-dependency demo app (java DemoApp.java, JDK 11+), and
shows the expected output after every command, so you always know you're on track.
These tutorials are hands-on labs; the concept-oriented companion is the BTrace Tutorial, and the reference lives in the Quick Reference.
Available tutorials
| # | Tutorial | You will | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Your First Trace in 2 Minutes | find a latency bug and a swallowed exception in a live JVM with oneliners | ~5 min |
| 02 | From Oneliner to Script: The Flat DSL | turn a oneliner into a version-controllable script and add @TLS state | ~10 min |
| 03 | Upgrade from 2.x in 10 Minutes | migrate scripts to the new package, and see why compiled probes need no changes at all | ~10 min |
| 04 | Extensions and Permissions Without Tears | grant, deny, and inspect extension permissions against a live JVM | ~10 min |
| 05 | Let an AI Assistant Debug Your JVM in 10 Minutes | wire the BTrace MCP server into an AI coding assistant and run a real diagnostic conversation | ~10 min |
| 06 | Write Your Own Extension in 30 Minutes | scaffold, build, install, and grant permissions for your own io.btrace.extension Gradle-plugin extension | ~25 min |
| 07 | Watch Your LLM App Think | put a latency budget on an LLM call and read token/latency/cost and budget violations off one combined dashboard | ~10 min |
| 08 | One JAR to Rule Them All: Building a BTrace Fat Agent | package BTrace plus a real extension into a single -javaagent JAR with the supported Gradle fat-agent plugin | ~15 min |
| 09 | BTrace in Kubernetes, the Sidecar Way | package BTrace into three container variants and attach across a container boundary, as a sidecar or a baked-in -javaagent | ~15 min |
Coming next
This wave-2 batch closes out the planned hands-on series (tracked in
internal/plans/2026-07-11-v3.0.0-tutorials-plan.md). A contingent T10 (BTrace Console TUI) exists
only if that exploratory interface is greenlit for a future release.
Conventions
- "You should see" blocks show realistic output; exact numbers will differ.
- Commands are complete except for
<PID>(get it withjps). - Every tutorial ends with a cleanup step and "Go deeper" links.
- All commands are verified against the BTrace version noted in the tutorial before publishing.