Debugging the Main Process

The DevTools in an Electron browser window can only debug JavaScript that’s executed in that window (i.e. the web pages). To debug JavaScript that’s executed in the main process you will need to use an external debugger and launch Electron with the --inspect or --inspect-brk switch.

Command Line Switches

Use one of the following command line switches to enable debugging of the main process:

--inspect=[port]

Electron will listen for V8 inspector protocol messages on the specified port, an external debugger will need to connect on this port. The default port is 5858.

  1. electron --inspect=5858 your/app

--inspect-brk=[port]

Like --inspect but pauses execution on the first line of JavaScript.

External Debuggers

You will need to use a debugger that supports the V8 inspector protocol.

  • Connect Chrome by visiting chrome://inspect and selecting to inspect the launched Electron app present there.
  • Debugging in VSCode