unexplainable 500 errors with flask and jquery ajax on google app engine

I was trying to do something simple - get a preloaded partial from the server via ajax. my api call worked directly in the browser, worked when I ran it with $.get() from the console after the page was loaded, but was returning 500 during page load (as in, only failing when it was called as js running at after dom load). I could confirm that the correct flask view was running and succeeding using logging, but the 500 I was getting had NO responsetext, and nothing useful..

After fighting and fruitless searching for 40 minutes, I disabled the flask debug toolbar. Voila! everything worked as expected.

Moral of the story: F$@# the flask debug toolbar.

facepalms: 8