Debugger for Chrome (Nightly) installs statistics

This is a nightly version of this extension for early feedback and testing

Disable the stable version of the extension before using the nightly version

VS Code - Debugger for Chrome

Debug your JavaScript code running in Google Chrome from VS Code.

A VS Code extension to debug your JavaScript code in the Google Chrome browser, or other targets that support the Chrome DevTools Protocol.

Supported features • Setting breakpoints, including in source files when source maps are enabled • Stepping, including with the buttons on the Chrome page • The Locals pane • Debugging eval scripts, script tags, and scripts that are added dynamically • Watches • Console

Unsupported scenarios • Debugging web workers • Any features that aren't script debugging.

Getting Started

1. Install the extension 2. Open the folder containing the project you want to work on.

Using the debugger

When your launch config is set up, you can debug your project. Pick a launch config from the dropdown on the Debug pane in Code. Press the play button or F5 to start.

Configuration

The extension operates in two modes - it can launch an instance of Chrome navigated to your app, or it can attach to a running instance of Chrome. Both modes requires you to be serving your web application from local web server, which is started from either a VS Code task or from your command-line. Using the url parameter you simply tell VS Code which URL to either open or launch in Chrome.

Just like when using the Node debugger, you configure these modes with a .vscode/launch.json file in the root directory of your project. You can create this file manually, or Code will create one for you if you try to run your project, and it doesn't exist yet.

Tip: See recipes for debugging different frameworks here: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-recipes

Launch

Two example launch.json configs with "request": "launch". You must specify either file or url to launch Chrome against a local file or a url. If you use a url, set webRoot to the directory that files are served from. This can be either an absolute path or a path using ${workspaceFolder} (the folder open in Code). webRoot is used to resolve urls (like "http://localhost/app.js") to a file on disk (like /Users/me/project/app.js), so be careful that it's set correctly.

If you want to use a different installation of Chrome, you can also set the runtimeExecutable field with a path to the Chrome app.

Attach

With "request": "attach", you must launch Chrome with remote debugging enabled in order for the extension to attach to it. Here's how to do that:

Windows • Right click the Chrome shortcut, and select properties • In the "target" field, append --remote-debugging-port=9222 • Or in a command prompt, execute /chrome.exe --remote-debugging-port=9222

macOS • In a terminal, execute /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222

Linux • In a terminal, launch google-chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222

If you have another instance of Chrome running and don't want to restart it, you can run the new instance under a separate user profile with the --user-data-dir option. Example: --user-data-dir=/tmp/chrome-debug. This is the same as using the userDataDir option in a launch-type config.

Launch Chrome and navigate to your page.

An example launch.json file for an "attach" config.

Chrome user profile note (Cannot connect to the target: connect ECONNREFUSED)

Normally, if Chrome is already running when you start debugging with a launch config, then the new instance won't start in remote debugging mode. So by default, the extension launches Chrome with a separate user profile in a temp folder. Use the userDataDir launch config field to override or disable this. If you are using the runtimeExecutable field, this isn't enabled by default, but you can forcibly enable it with "userDataDir": true.

If you are using an attach config, make sure you close other running instances of Chrome before launching a new one with --remote-debugging-port. Or, use a new profile with the --user-data-dir flag yourself.

For other troubleshooting tips for this error, see below.

Errors from chrome-error://chromewebdata

If you see errors with a location like chrome-error://chromewebdata/ in the error stack, these errors are not from the extension or from your app - they are usually a sign that Chrome was not able to load your app.

When you see these errors, first check whether Chrome was able to load your app. Does Chrome say "This site can't be reached" or something similar? You must start your own server to run your app. Double-check that your server is running, and that the url and port are configured correctly.

Other targets

You can also theoretically attach to other targets that support the same Chrome Debugging protocol, such as Electron or Cordova. These aren't officially supported, but should work with basically the same steps. You can use a launch config by setting "runtimeExecutable" to a program or script to launch, or an attach config to attach to a process that's already running. If Code can't find the target, you can always verify that it is actually available by navigating to http://localhost:/json in a browser. If you get a response with a bunch of JSON, and can find your target page in that JSON, then the target should be available to this extension.

Examples

See our wiki page for some configured example apps: Examples

Other optional launch config fields…

Description from the VS Code Marketplace listing.