Windsurf Debugging: Technical Reference

Memory Leak Management

Performance Thresholds

• Startup RAM: 500MB normal baseline
• Critical threshold: 2.5GB - terminal integration fails
• Breaking point: 3.5GB+ - system instability
• Session duration: Memory climbs linearly over 4-6 hours
• Context conversation impact: Each long conversation increases memory consumption

Memory Monitoring Commands

# macOS - Real-time monitoring
while true; do ps -o pid,rss,comm -p $(pgrep Windsurf); sleep 2; done

# Linux - Human readable format
watch -n 2 'ps aux | grep -i windsurf | grep -v grep'

# Windows PowerShell - Memory tracking
while(1) { Get-Process windsurf | select ProcessName,WorkingSet,VirtualMemorySize; sleep 5 }

Required Restart Schedule

• Mandatory: Every 4-6 hours during heavy development
• Warning signs: Slowdown after 4 hours, RAM >2GB
• Process: Save context → copy diffs → force quit → restart fresh

Critical Failure Points

Context Confusion Triggers

• Cascade context limit: 15-20 exchanges maximum
• File similarity: Similar filenames cause misidentification
• Symptoms:
  • Suggests code for wrong components
  • Forgets variables from same conversation
  • Hallucinates non-existent APIs

Terminal Integration Failure

• Breaking point: 2GB memory usage
• Diagnostic test: echo "Testing terminal integration - timestamp: $(date)"
• Failure indicator: Cascade doesn't acknowledge terminal output
• Workaround: Manual copy-paste of terminal output

Version-Specific Issues

v1.12.2 (Current August 2025)

• Voice input functional but increases memory consumption
• Terminal integration improved but fails under memory pressure
• Memory leaks reduced but not eliminated

v1.11.x Series

• GPT-5 models consume more memory than SWE-1
• Planning mode creates additional memory overhead
• Dev container support increases memory usage

v1.10.x and Older

• Avoid if possible - severe memory leak issues
• Cascade panel crashes under memory pressure

Configuration Tuning

Large Codebase Performance (>100k lines)

// .vscode/settings.json or Windsurf workspace settings
{
  "codeium.enableIndexing": false,
  "files.watcherExclude": {
    "**/node_modules/**": true,
    "**/dist/**": true,
    "**/build/**": true,
    "**/.git/objects/**": true
  }
}

Network Requirements

Required endpoints for whitelist:

• *.codeium.com
• *.windsurf.com
• api.openai.com (OpenAI models)
• api.anthropic.com (Claude models)

Nuclear Debugging Procedures

Complete Process Cleanup

# macOS - Full termination
sudo pkill -f -9 windsurf
sudo pkill -f -9 Windsurf
sudo pkill -f -9 codeium
sudo purge

# Windows - Nuclear process killing
taskkill /F /IM windsurf.exe /T
taskkill /F /IM "Windsurf.exe" /T

# Linux - Complete cleanup
killall -9 windsurf
killall -9 windsurf-bin
sudo rm -rf /dev/shm/windsurf*
sudo rm -rf /tmp/.windsurf*

Configuration Reset Locations

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Windsurf/
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Windsurf\
• Linux: ~/.config/Windsurf/

Critical directories to clear:

• CachedExtensions/ - forces extension reload
• logs/ - clears log corruption
• GPUCache/ - fixes rendering issues
• tmp/ - clears temporary corruption

Common Error Patterns

"MCP error occurred"

Root causes:

• MCP server timeout
• Malformed JSON configuration
• Missing comma or bracket in config

Debug process:

1. Open Developer Console: Help → Toggle Developer Tools
2. Check MCP config syntax
3. Restart MCP servers: curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/restart
4. Nuclear option: Delete MCP config and recreate

"Failed to connect to Codeium servers"

Corporate network debugging:

# Test endpoint connectivity
curl -I https://windsurf.com
curl -I https://api.codeium.com

# Check DNS resolution
nslookup api.codeium.com

Terminal Integration "No active terminal"

Fix sequence:

1. Close all terminal tabs in Windsurf
2. Kill orphaned processes: ps aux | grep -i windsurf | grep terminal
3. Restart Windsurf completely
4. Open new terminal tabs

Performance Comparison Matrix

Editor	Startup RAM	4-Hour Session	Memory Leaks	Restart Frequency
Windsurf	500MB	2.5-3.5GB	Severe	Every 4-6 hours
Cursor	400MB	800MB-1.2GB	Minor	Once per day
VS Code + Copilot	300MB	600-800MB	Rare	Rarely
JetBrains + AI	1.2GB	1.8-2.2GB	Moderate	Once per day

Emergency Fallback Setup

Backup Development Environment

1. VS Code installed with basic extensions
2. Offline documentation - devdocs.io synced locally
3. Terminal tools knowledge - grep, find for code searching
4. GitHub Copilot setup: code --install-extension GitHub.copilot

Corporate Environment Challenges

Security objections:

• Code transmission to external servers
• Constant network API calls
• No clear on-premises option
• Unclear data retention policies

Workarounds:

• BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) for Anthropic API
• Proxy/firewall rules for required endpoints
• Document all external API calls for security review
• Regular VS Code as fallback for sensitive codebases

Resource Requirements

Time Investment

• Daily maintenance: 5-10 minutes for restart routine
• Troubleshooting: 30-60 minutes for major issues
• Configuration: 2-4 hours initial setup for corporate environments
• Recovery: 1-2 hours for complete reinstall

Expertise Prerequisites

• Basic terminal/command line proficiency
• Process monitoring tools familiarity
• Network troubleshooting for corporate environments
• JSON configuration syntax knowledge

Critical Success Factors

1. Proactive memory monitoring - don't wait for crashes
2. Regular restart schedule - treat as mandatory maintenance
3. Backup development environment - always have VS Code ready
4. Corporate network preparation - understand firewall requirements
5. Configuration backup - export extension lists regularly

Breaking Points and Failure Modes

Immediate Action Required

• RAM usage >2.5GB: Restart immediately
• Terminal integration failure: Complete process cleanup needed
• Context confusion: Start new Cascade conversation
• Network connectivity loss: No graceful degradation - editor becomes unusable

Unrecoverable Scenarios

• Configuration corruption: Requires complete config reset
• Permission issues: Needs admin-level file system repair
• Corporate proxy blocking: Requires IT intervention for endpoint whitelisting
• Extension conflicts: Must disable all extensions and reinstall selectively

This technical reference prioritizes operational intelligence over theory, focusing on measurable thresholds, specific commands, and proven workarounds for production debugging scenarios.