DEBUGGING THROUGH CAUSALITY AND TEMPORAL PATTERING IN A EVENT PROCESSING SYSTEM

Techniques for visualizing events in a distributed system are provided. One or more recordings identifying events occurring on a software agent are received, where two of the events occurred effectively simultaneously. A visualization showing a timeline for the software agent is generated, where the visualization represents the events as icons on the timeline based on times associated with the events, and where the visualization includes a stacked icon representing the two events that occurred effectively simultaneously. A request indicating the stacked icon is received, and the stacked icon is updated to present a semi-circle arrangement of icons representing the two events that occurred effectively simultaneously. A causal chain of events related to a first event corresponding to the stacked icon is determined, and the visualization is updated based on the causal chain of events to present an ordered sequence of events.