Live Debugger
The Live Debugger described on this page runs on self-hosted containers. The hosted Live Debugger (accessible from your account page) is a standalone sandbox that does not debug sessions from your code. For debugging your own scripts, use the Hybrid feature in v2 or the BrowserQL Editor.
The Live Debugger ships with all Chromium Docker images and provides an in-browser development environment for headless browser scripts. Key features include:
- Editor with syntax highlighting and auto-completion
- TypeScript support
- Visual screencast of the browser that you can interact with
- Browser DevTools integration
- File downloading for testing PDFs/PNGs
- Control over browser-specific parameters (headless, stealth, etc.)
- Tab-based layout with code-saving capabilities
- Save your code to disk as a Node.js project
In your Browserless account, the debugger link appears in the menu under the Resources section:
The Live Debugger interface:
From here, connect to your worker's WebSocket endpoints, set custom launch flags, and configure session parameters.
Alternative Debugging Approaches
Hybrid Feature in v2
For Puppeteer and Playwright, use the Hybrid automation feature to:
- Stream remote headless browsers to users via a shareable URL
- Detect when CAPTCHAs are found on the page
- Allow human intervention in automation workflows
- Continue automation after human interaction is complete
BrowserQL Editor
For real-time session viewing and debugging, use the BrowserQL Editor, which provides:
- Live view of the browser session in the right panel
- Built-in documentation and debugging tools
- Ability to create and test queries before integrating them into your code
- Advanced session settings and configuration options
To access the BrowserQL Editor:
- Log into your Browserless account at browserless.io/account
- Navigate to the BQL section in the sidebar menu, or
- Go directly to https://browserless.io/account/bql
For more information about BrowserQL and its features, see our BrowserQL documentation.