debugging.md

Debugging

Debugging on the Command Line

If you're using Electron 1.8 or later, you can specify the --inspect-electron flag when running electron-forge start, which will set the Electron --inspectflag with the default debugger port.

electron-forge start --inspect-electron

This will allow you to open chrome://inspect in Google Chrome and attach a debugger to the main process of your app.

Debugging with VS Code

Debugging your Electron main process through VS Code is ridiculously easy with Forge. Simply add this as a launch config in VSCode and you're good to go.

{% hint style="info" %} You need to be using Electron 1.8 or later for this launch config to work.

If you are using < 1.8 you should really be updating Electron anyway. {% endhint %}

{% code title="launch.config" %}

{
  "type": "node",
  "request": "launch",
  "name": "Electron Main",
  "runtimeExecutable": "${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/.bin/electron-forge-vscode-nix",
  "windows": {
    "runtimeExecutable": "${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/.bin/electron-forge-vscode-win.cmd"
  },
  // runtimeArgs will be passed directly to your Electron application
  "runtimeArgs": [
    "foo",
    "bar"
  ],
  "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}"
}

{% endcode %}

Debugging with WebStorm or Other Jetbrains IDEs

{% hint style="info" %} This assumes your package.json has a "start": "electron-forge start" script. {% endhint %}

1. Access the Run > Debug... menu and select the Edit Configurations... option to open the Run/Debug Configurations window.
2. Click on the Add new configuration button (the + icon) in the upper-left corner and select the npm template.
3. In the Scripts dropdown menu, select start.
4. Click on Debug to start debugging your app.