Aspects include detecting, by an agent of a remote debugging tool that a first controller currently associated with the agent for a debugging session has not responded to a status inquiry from the agent. The first controller interacts with an end user, sends requests to the agent to operate a target program, and processes responses from the agent. Based on detecting that the first controller has not responded to the status inquiry from the agent, the agent identifies a second controller, associates the second controller with the agent for the debugging session, and resumes the debugging session with the second controller in place of the first controller. The associating includes synchronizing a debugging session state between the second controller and the agent. The target program continues to execute during the identifying, associating, and resuming, and the debugging session state is not changed by the identifying, associating, and resuming.