Systems and methods for providing distributed debugging in an extensible SOAP environment of asynchronous software web services are disclosed. Such a system may include a message originator, a diagnostics tagger, an intended message receiver, and a debug controller, which may communicate with one another via SOAP messages. The message originator originally puts the SOAP message onto the network. The diagnostics tagger modifies the SOAP message to include certain diagnostics elements that cause a breakpoint to be triggered. The intended message receiver eventually receives the message and is expected to trigger the breakpoint. The debug controller is a process that is called by the intended message receiver when a breakpoint is detected. The header of the SOAP message may include a security element and a diagnostics element. The diagnostics element may include one or more breakpoint elements. Each breakpoint element may include a debugging controller element, and one or more condition elements. Each condition element may include a logical expression. The intended message receiver determines whether the conditions are met. If the conditions are met, then the breakpoint is triggered.