Debug in VS Code

This guide will walk you through setting up VS Code for debugging the Core Process of your Tauri app.

All platforms with vscode-lldb extension

Configure launch.json

Create a .vscode/launch.json file and paste the below JSON contents into it:

{
  // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
  // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
  // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "type": "lldb",
      "request": "launch",
      "name": "Tauri Development Debug",
      "cargo": {
        "args": [
          "build",
          "--manifest-path=./src-tauri/Cargo.toml",
          "--no-default-features"
        ]
      },
      // task for the `beforeDevCommand` if used, must be configured in `.vscode/tasks.json`
      "preLaunchTask": "ui:dev"
    },
    {
      "type": "lldb",
      "request": "launch",
      "name": "Tauri Production Debug",
      "cargo": {
        "args": ["build", "--release", "--manifest-path=./src-tauri/Cargo.toml"]
      },
      // task for the `beforeBuildCommand` if used, must be configured in `.vscode/tasks.json`
      "preLaunchTask": "ui:build"
    }
  ]
}

This uses cargo directly to build the Rust application and load it in both development and production modes.

Note that it does not use the Tauri CLI, so exclusive CLI features are not executed. The beforeDevCommand and beforeBuildCommand scripts must be executed beforehand or configured as a task in the preLaunchTask field. Below is an example .vscode/tasks.json file that has two tasks, one for a beforeDevCommand that spawns a development server and one for beforeBuildCommand:

{
  // See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
  // for the documentation about the tasks.json format
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "ui:dev",
      "type": "shell",
      // `dev` keeps running in the background
      // ideally you should also configure a `problemMatcher`
      // see https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/tasks#_can-a-background-task-be-used-as-a-prelaunchtask-in-launchjson
      "isBackground": true,
      // change this to your `beforeDevCommand`:
      "command": "yarn",
      "args": ["dev"]
    },
    {
      "label": "ui:build",
      "type": "shell",
      // change this to your `beforeBuildCommand`:
      "command": "yarn",
      "args": ["build"]
    }
  ]
}

Now you can set breakpoints in src-tauri/src/main.rs or any other Rust file and start debugging by pressing F5.

With Visual Studio Windows Debugger on Windows

Visual Studio Windows Debugger is a Windows-only debugger that is generally faster than vscode-lldb with better support for some Rust features such as enums.

Prerequisites

Install the C/C++ extension and follow https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/cpp/config-msvc#_prerequisites to install Visual Studio Windows Debugger.

Configure launch.json and tasks.json

{
  // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
  // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
  // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "Launch App Debug",
      "type": "cppvsdbg",
      "request": "launch",
      // change the exe name to your actual exe name
      // (to debug release builds, change `target/debug` to `release/debug`)
      "program": "${workspaceRoot}/src-tauri/target/debug/your-app-name-here.exe",
      "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
      "preLaunchTask": "ui:dev"
    }
  ]
}

Note that it does not use the Tauri CLI, so exclusive CLI features are not executed. The tasks.json is the same as with lldb, except you need to add a config group and target your preLaunchTask from launch.json to it if you want it to always compile before launching.

Here is an example of running a dev server (equivalent of beforeDevCommand) and the compilation (cargo build) as a group, to use it, change the preLaunchTask config in launch.json to dev (or anything you named your group).

{
  // See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
  // for the documentation about the tasks.json format
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "build:debug",
      "type": "cargo",
      "command": "build"
    },
    {
      "label": "ui:dev",
      "type": "shell",
      // `dev` keeps running in the background
      // ideally you should also configure a `problemMatcher`
      // see https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/tasks#_can-a-background-task-be-used-as-a-prelaunchtask-in-launchjson
      "isBackground": true,
      // change this to your `beforeDevCommand`:
      "command": "yarn",
      "args": ["dev"]
    },
    {
      "label": "dev",
      "dependsOn": ["build:debug", "ui:dev"],
      "group": {
        "kind": "build"
      }
    }
  ]
}