By Hala Kabir, 10-year-old AI & Python developer | Kiroween Hackathon 2025
Debugging can feel like walking through a haunted house — full of dead code, cursed loops, zombie dependencies, and hidden bugs. For the Kiroween Hackathon 2025, I wanted to turn that scary experience into something fun, educational, and magical. That’s how Nightmare Debugger was born!
What is Nightmare Debugger?
Nightmare Debugger is a Halloween-themed AI debugging tool that helps developers:
Detect dead code (ghost functions)
Highlight outdated or broken dependencies (zombie packages)
Catch infinite or cursed loops
Identify security warnings
Automatically “resurrect” broken code with safe patches using Kiro AI
The goal is to make debugging less intimidating, especially for beginners, while adding a spooky, interactive twist.
How It Works
Scan: The app continuously monitors your code with background hooks, highlighting ghost functions, zombie dependencies, and cursed loops in real-time.
Exorcise : Press the “Exorcise” button, and Kiro generates a patch, shows the diff, and updates the code automatically — safely and instantly.
Learn: Kiro provides beginner-friendly explanations alongside spooky messages and visuals, making debugging educational and fun.
All of this is powered by Kiro AI, combined with Vibe Coding, spec-driven modules, and steering documents to ensure accurate, consistent, and creative outputs.
Development Journey
Building Nightmare Debugger taught me how to:
Structure AI prompts and specs for reliable code fixes
Automate workflows using hooks and MCP modules
Combine technical functionality with creativity to make coding engaging
Build an interactive UI that visualizes debugging in a Halloween-themed way
Even at 10 years old, I was able to design, code, and test every module myself, from planning scanner logic to integrating Kiro AI and designing the UI.
Why It Matters
Nightmare Debugger isn’t just a fun Halloween project — it’s a learning tool that:
Helps beginners understand and fix bugs safely
Reduces the intimidation of debugging
Makes coding fun, interactive, and educational
It shows that even haunted code can have a happy ending!
Check it out and experience the magic of resurrecting broken code!
🎃👻💻
Top comments (0)