The <debugging> header provides portable utilities for debugger interaction. std::breakpoint() triggers a debugger breakpoint; std::is_debugger_present() queries whether a debugger is attached to the process.

Prior to this facility, triggering a breakpoint programmatically required platform-specific intrinsics (e.g., __debugbreak(), __builtin_trap(), raise(SIGTRAP)). The standard debugging utilities provide a portable interface with defined behavior when no debugger is attached.

#include <debugging>
#include <print>

void validate(int value) {
    if (value < 0) {
        std::println("Invalid value: {}", value);

        if (std::is_debugger_present()) {
            std::breakpoint();  // pause here for inspection
        }
    }
}

int main() {
    // Unconditional breakpoint - useful for "stop here" debugging
    std::breakpoint_if_debugging();

    validate(-5);
}