Using interactive Debugger Console

When you are debugging a Node.js application, PhpStorm shows two console tabs in the Debug tool window - Process Console and Debugger Console.

The Process Console tab shows the output of the node process itself, that is, everything that is written to process.stdout and process.stderr directly or is logged using console.*.
In the Debugger Console, you can run JavaScript code snippets and view the console.* messages.

Run JavaScript in the Debugger Console

Start typing a statement at > in the input field. As you type, PhpStorm suggests variants for completion.
When typing a multi-line code fragment, press Shift+Enter to start a new line and Ctrl+Enter to split a line.
Select the relevant statement and press Enter. PhpStorm shows its value in the debugger console.
PhpStorm shows previews for objects so you do not need to expand them. If you still expand an object, you get an overview of just its own properties, the __proto__ contents are hidden by default.

Navigate to source code

At each line with output of console.*, PhpStorm shows the name of the file and the line where it was called. Click this link to jump to the call in the source code.
The Debugger Console also shows stack traces. Click the link next to a reported problem to jump to the line of code where this problem occurred.

Filter out messages

The Debugger Console tab shows objects in a tree view, with stack traces collapsed by default. Warnings console.warn(), errors console.error(), and info console.info() messages have different icons and background colors to make them easier to notice.

To hide log messages of specific types, click and select the severities to filter out.

Group messages

The log messages grouped using console.group() and console.groupEnd() are displayed as a tree. To show the output collapsed by default, use console.groupCollapsed().

Apply CSS styles

Use CSS and the %c marker to apply styles to log messages.
See Styling console output with CSS for details.

Last modified: 16 July 2021