Debugging with devtools

Note: following guides only apply to node-webkit >= v0.3.0

Open Developer Tools

In order to show the devtools button in toolbar, you should make sure your window shows the toolbar:

{
  "window": {
    "toolbar": true
  }
}

Then you can open devtools from the devtools button (the one on the right of url entry) in the toolbar.

Note: On Windows and Linux, you need to make sure nw.pak is in the same directory with nw(Linux) or nw.exe (Window)

Remote Debugging

You can use the --remote-debugging-port=port command parameter to specify which port the devtools should listen to. For example, by running nw --remote-debugging-port=9222, you can open http://localhost:9222/ to visit the debugger remotely.

Bugs of Developer Tools

Currently not everything of developer tools is working well, bellow are the things that don't work:

• node modules don't shown in script sources

Why the devtools shows an empty window?

Under certain Windows machines, the devtools loads very slow, it may show a white page at first and needs about 30s to be fully loaded. This is not a bug of node-webkit, devtools in node-webkit is indeed a remote debugger, it needs to open a local server and transfer data via sockets.

So if you encounter empty window when opening the devtools, please check following things:

• nw.pak should be in the same directory with nw.exe.
• Your proxy settings.
• Antivirus or firewall software.
• Check if you boot your Windows VM in VMWare Fusion mode.

If you still have problems after making sure nothing is slowing down the devtools, than you have to wait until devtools is fully loaded.