Embodiments are directed to handling errors in a distributed software application. In one scenario, a computer system instantiates a distributed application which is configured for execution on multiple different computer systems. The computer system determines that an exception has occurred during the execution of the distributed application on at least one of the computer systems and translates the exception that occurred during distributed execution in a distributed environment into a serial exception that appears to have occurred during serial execution in a serial execution environment. The computer system then presents the translated serial exception to an application developer or other user.