Use cases

There are four ways to start a debug session. They differ only in the launch.json configuration - once running, debugging (breakpoints, stepping, variables) is identical. Pick the one that matches what you're doing:

Use case	request	Key fields	Use it when…
Debug a local program	launch	program	You want the debugger to start a program on this machine.
Debug a running process	attach	processId	The program is already running on this machine.
Debug a remote process	attach	processId + connectionString	The program runs on another machine (via dbgsrv).
Debug a Windows driver	attach	kernel: true + connectionString	You're debugging kernel-mode drivers on a debug-enabled target.

Launch vs. attach

Launch = the debugger creates the process. Attach = it connects to one that already exists (locally, remotely, or a whole machine for drivers).

Every configuration also accepts shared options like dbgengPath, sources, stopAtEntry, and trace - see the configuration reference for all of them.