Remote Web Inspector

The remote Web Inspector enables debugging of web pages from a different device. This may be particularly useful in environments where it may not be feasible to use the Web Inspector in the same screen, or when input devices (keyboard, mouse) are not available.

Note WPE WebKit only supports using the Web Inspector remotely, as embedded devices often lack input devices, have smaller screens, use custom windowing systems, or may even be headless (no screen at all).

Server

To run an application with the remote inspector server enabled:

• When running the application, set the environment variable WEBKIT_INSPECTOR_SERVER or WEBKIT_INSPECTOR_HTTP_SERVER to configure on which address and port the server will open its listening socket.
• The application must enable WebKitSettings:enable-developer-extras. This determines whether the Web Inspector may be used at all.

As an example, the MiniBrowser program included in the WebKit source code distribution may be used as a server for remote inspection:

export WEBKIT_INSPECTOR_SERVER=192.168.0.50:5000
MiniBrowser --enable-developer-extras=true https://wpewebkit.org

Client

::: important

The Web Inspector uses current Web APIs as supported by WebKit; browser
support varies. For the best experience it is recommended to use a
WebKit-based browser with a version matching (or newer than) the one
running the server.

Chromium and derivatives tend to work well when using the HTTP inspector
server, too.

Browsers based on WebKitGTK may be used as clients for the remote Web Inspector service. The client is started by opening an URI with the inspector:// scheme, plus the address and port where the server is listening, e.g.:

MiniBrowser inspector://192.168.0.50:5000

The Web Inspector is an application written using Web technologies itself, and it may be loaded on non-WebKit browsers. If enabled, the inspector server will listen for HTTP incoming requests, and inspector:// may be replaced by the http:// scheme.