OtterDr is a VS Code extension designed to soften one of development’s most draining friction points: overwhelming error messages and long stretches of isolated debugging.
•Built and shipped a VS Code extension leveraging the WebView API, delivering in-editor debugging explanations without context switching to reduce time diagnosing errors
•Intercepted editor diagnostics using the VS Code Extension API and attached command-driven actions to error panels to create a seamless, guided debugging workflow
•Integrated the OpenAI API to convert compiler/runtime errors into plain-English explanation with contextual reasonings, improving developer understanding and reducing time spent interpreting errors
•Implemented grounding/validation checks by comparing AI-generated explanations against the original diagnostics and relevant source code content to keep outputs aligned to real errors
•Designed prompt constraints and response formatting rules to reduce AI hallucinations and surface only relevant, verifiable debugging guidance