Errors and debugging

An evs script can fail on three distinct timelines, and each one fails differently:

Timeline	What you get	Typical causes
Recording — the builder callback	EvsTypeError / EvsStagingError / EvsScopeError, thrown at the offending line	out-of-range literals, type mismatches, using an Expr as a plain JS value, captures in s.fn
Compile — compile()	EvsCompileError thrown; EvsDiagnostic warnings via onDiagnostic	EIP-170 size overflow, unknown evmVersion; warnings like LOOP_ALLOCATION
Run time — the eth_call	revert payloads: Panic(uint256), the evs error ABI, bubbled callee reverts	overflow, out-of-bounds indexing, malformed returndata, a callee reverting

Every TS-side error extends EvsError, which carries a machine-readable code (EvsErrorCode), a loc ({ file, line, column } of the offending call, or null), and relatedLocs when two source locations are involved. The full code list lives in the diagnostics reference.

Recording-time errors

The builder callback runs exactly once, and evs validates everything it can the moment a builder method is called — so the stack trace points at your line:

import { arg, evscript, EvsTypeError, t } from '@maxencerb/evs';

try {
  evscript({ name: 'overflowing', args: [arg('x', t.uint8)] }, (s) => {
    const y = s.args.x.add(300n); // 300 does not fit uint8 — throws here, at recording
    return s.return({ y });
  });
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof EvsTypeError) {
    const code = e.code; // 'LITERAL_RANGE'
    const where = e.loc; // { file, line, column } of the offending .add(300n)
  }
}

Three classes can surface at recording:

Class	Thrown for
EvsTypeError	type mismatches, literal range violations, overloaded ABI names, non-v0 types, folds that would certainly panic
EvsStagingError	using a handle as a plain JS value — valueOf, toString, template strings, JSON.stringify
EvsScopeError	foreign handles, captures inside s.fn, LoopCtl outside its loop, builder calls after s.return

Staging misuse deserves a callout because TypeScript catches most of it too. This does not compile, and each line would throw EvsStagingError at recording if it did:

const sum = s.args.x + 1n; // Expr<'uint256'> is not a bigint — use s.args.x.add(1n)
const label = `balance: ${bal}`; // template-string coercion on a handle throws

See values and types for the full staging model.

Compile-time errors and diagnostics

compile() is reserved for whole-program facts. It throws EvsCompileError for hard failures — COMPILE_LIMIT when the runtime exceeds the EIP-170 cap (with a per-region size breakdown; see EVM targets) and EVM_VERSION for an unknown target. Internal verifier failures throw EvsInternalError, whose message always contains “bug in evs, please report”.

Non-fatal findings are warnings, delivered only through the onDiagnostic callback — compile() never logs:

import { arg, compile, evscript, EvsCompileError, t, type EvsDiagnostic } from '@maxencerb/evs';

const echo = evscript({ name: 'echo', args: [arg('x', t.uint256)] }, (s) =>
  s.return({ x: s.args.x }),
);

const warnings: EvsDiagnostic[] = [];
try {
  compile(echo, { onDiagnostic: (d) => warnings.push(d) });
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof EvsCompileError) {
    const code = e.code; // 'COMPILE_LIMIT' (EIP-170) or 'EVM_VERSION' (unknown target)
  }
}

Each EvsDiagnostic is { severity: 'warning', code, message, loc } with three possible codes: LOOP_ALLOCATION (memory allocated on every loop iteration — evs never resets the free pointer), LARGE_FRAME, and ENV_FRAME_DEPENDENT (s.env('caller')/s.env('address') — covered in executing scripts).

Runtime reverts

At run time a script reverts with one of three payload families.

Panics — Panic(uint256)

evs uses Solidity 0.8’s Panic(uint256) convention. Your script’s own code emits exactly four codes; everything else can still reach you because callee reverts bubble verbatim:

Code	Meaning	Emitted by your script?
0x00	generic compiler panic	bubbled from a callee only
0x01	assertion failure (assert)	bubbled from a callee only
0x11	arithmetic overflow or underflow	yes — checked add/sub/mul, narrowing conversions
0x12	division or modulo by zero	yes — div/mod
0x21	invalid enum conversion	bubbled from a callee only
0x22	corrupted storage byte array	bubbled from a callee only
0x31	pop on an empty array	bubbled from a callee only
0x32	array index out of bounds	yes — .at(), MutArray get/set
0x41	allocation too large (out of memory)	yes — s.newArray with a runtime length ≥ 2^32
0x51	call to a zero-initialized internal function	bubbled from a callee only

See arithmetic for exactly which operations check what.

The evs error ABI

Two custom errors are evs’s own. They are exported as EVS_ERROR_ABI and — more usefully — already included in every compiled script’s abi, so viem names them when decoding a revert:

Error	Reverted when
EvsInvalidCalldata()	the calldata does not match the script function: wrong selector, truncated calldata, malformed dynamic arguments
EvsDecodeError(uint256 site)	a strict s.call received structurally malformed returndata; site indexes the artifact’s source map

Bubbled callee reverts

When a contract called via s.call reverts, the script reverts with the callee’s payload byte-for-byte — Error(string), Panic(uint256), and custom errors alike. Nothing is wrapped or rewritten, so you can decode the payload against the callee’s ABI as if you had called it directly. If you want a failed sub-call to produce zeros instead of reverting, use s.tryCall — see calling contracts.

explainRevert — from a viem error to your source line

The artifact’s explainRevert(data) classifies any revert payload and, where possible, maps it back to the script line that produced it. The full flow — catch the viem error, extract the raw payload, explain it:

import { arg, compile, evscript, t } from '@maxencerb/evs';
import {
  BaseError,
  ContractFunctionRevertedError,
  createPublicClient,
  erc20Abi,
  http,
} from 'viem';

const tokenMeta = evscript({ name: 'tokenMeta', args: [arg('token', t.address)] }, (s) => {
  const symbol = s.call({ address: s.args.token, abi: erc20Abi, functionName: 'symbol' });
  return s.return({ symbol });
});

const compiled = compile(tokenMeta);
const client = createPublicClient({ transport: http('https://eth.merkle.io') });

try {
  await client.readContract({
    ...compiled.toViem(),
    functionName: 'tokenMeta',
    args: ['0x000000000000000000000000000000000000dEaD'], // no symbol() here
  });
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof BaseError) {
    const reverted = e.walk((err) => err instanceof ContractFunctionRevertedError);
    if (reverted instanceof ContractFunctionRevertedError && reverted.raw !== undefined) {
      const explanation = compiled.explainRevert(reverted.raw);
      // explanation.kind    → 'evs-decode'
      // explanation.message → "decoding symbol() returndata failed (EvsDecodeError site 1)
      //                        — recorded at token-meta.ts:5:20"
      // explanation.site    → { id, loc, detail } for the s.call that failed
    }
  }
}

The result is a RevertExplanation: { kind, message, raw } plus panicCode and candidateSites for panics and site for decode errors. The kinds:

kind	Payload	Source attribution
'panic'	Panic(uint256)	candidateSites — every site in this script that can raise that panic code
'evs-decode'	EvsDecodeError(uint256 site)	site — the exact s.call whose returndata failed to decode, with its recorded loc
'evs-invalid-calldata'	EvsInvalidCalldata()	the script’s own signature is named in the message
'error-string'	Error(string)	none — bubbled verbatim from a callee
'custom'	any other selector	none — decode it against the callee’s ABI
'empty'	zero-length returndata	none — a bare revert()/require(false) bubbled, or the frame failed without reason

Attribution is a hint when the script makes sub-calls

Panics share one revert tail, so panic attribution is a list of candidates, not proof. And since callee reverts bubble byte-exactly, an adversarial callee can revert with the evs selectors verbatim — for scripts that perform sub-calls, explainRevert appends a hedge noting that the payload may have originated off-script. Scripts without sub-calls cannot bubble anything, so their attributions are authoritative.

disassemble() — read the bytecode

disassemble() returns the annotated instruction listing of the runtime bytecode; format() renders it with labels, jump targets, notes, and source locations:

import { arg, compile, evscript, lookupPc, t } from '@maxencerb/evs';

const echo = evscript({ name: 'echo', args: [arg('x', t.uint256)] }, (s) =>
  s.return({ x: s.args.x }),
);
const compiled = compile(echo);

const listing = compiled.disassemble().format();
// pc, raw bytes, mnemonic, jump targets, notes — see below

const hit = lookupPc(compiled.sourceMap, 0x29);
// hit → { loc: { file, line, column } | null, note?: string } | undefined

The first lines of the real listing for this echo(uint256) script (cancun target):

0x0000  60a0        PUSH1 0xa0  ; frameEnd
0x0002  6040        PUSH1 0x40
0x0004  52          MSTORE  ; free-ptr init
0x0005  6004        PUSH1 0x04
0x0007  36          CALLDATASIZE
0x0008  10          LT
0x0009  610088      PUSH2 0x0088 → @badcd
0x000c  57          JUMPI
0x000d  5f          PUSH0
0x000e  35          CALLDATALOAD
0x000f  60e0        PUSH1 0xe0
0x0011  1c          SHR
0x0012  636279e43c  PUSH4 0x6279e43c  ; selector echo(uint256)
0x0017  14          EQ
0x0018  610020      PUSH2 0x0020 → @main

disassemble also works on foreign bytecode — it is a free export taking raw bytes or hex — and format({ locs: false }) drops the source-location comments.

sourceMap and lookupPc

The artifact’s sourceMap is the data behind both tools: segments map every pc range to the source location that produced it, sites give each panic/decode/call site an id, a kind, and a human-readable detail (this is what explainRevert resolves EvsDecodeError(site) against), and labels name the pcs of internal jump targets. lookupPc(map, pc) binary-searches the segments — handy for decorating an execution trace from a node or a fork tool with script source lines.

For debugging script logic without a node at all, run the IR oracle instead — see testing scripts. Full artifact shapes are in the artifact reference.