A method including receiving, at a computer system, debugging configuration information specifying a functional area of a data stream processing server to be debugged, is described. Furthermore, the method includes identifying, by the computer system, an object associated with the functional area that has been instantiated by the data stream processing server, determining, by the computer system, that tracing for the object is enabled to perform the debugging, and instantiating, by the computer system, a tracelet associated with the object. Further, the method includes stepping, by the computer system, through the tracelet associated with the object to debug the object, and displaying, by the computer system, a visual representation of debugging results associated with the object.