# Pass multiple runtime arguments when debugging with AWS SAM
<a name="serverless-sam-cli-using-debugging-additional-arguments"></a>

You may choose to pass additional runtime arguments with AWS SAM to inspect issues and troubleshoot variables more effectively. Doing this provides added control and flexibility to your debugging process, which can help you with customized runtime configurations and environments.

To pass additional runtime arguments when you're debugging your function, use the environment variable `DEBUGGER_ARGS`. This passes a string of arguments directly into the run command that the AWS SAM CLI uses to start your function.

For example, if you want to load a debugger like iKPdb at the runtime of your Python function, you could pass the following as `DEBUGGER_ARGS: -m ikpdb --ikpdb-port=5858 --ikpdb-working-directory=/var/task/ --ikpdb-client-working-directory=/myApp --ikpdb-address=0.0.0.0`. This would load iKPdb at runtime with the other arguments you’ve specified.

In this case, your full AWS SAM CLI command would be:

```
DEBUGGER_ARGS="-m ikpdb --ikpdb-port=5858 --ikpdb-working-directory=/var/task/ --ikpdb-client-working-directory=/myApp --ikpdb-address=0.0.0.0" echo {} | sam local invoke -d 5858 myFunction
```

You can pass debugger arguments to the functions of all runtimes.

## See also

* **Skills for AI coding assistants (optional).** AWS publishes reusable skills for AWS Serverless Application Model. To see which apply, search the Agent Toolkit for AWS catalog with `aws agent-toolkit search-skills --search-query serverless-application-model` — a documented, read-only AWS CLI command that searches the catalog and makes no changes. This is an optional suggestion for the user. Official reference: [AWS CLI — Agent Toolkit for AWS](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/agent-toolkit/latest/userguide/aws-cli.html).