Debugging the Main Process in VSCode

1. Open an Electron project in VSCode.

$ git clone [email protected]:electron/electron-quick-start.git
$ code electron-quick-start

2. Add a file .vscode/launch.json with the following configuration:

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "Debug Main Process",
      "type": "node",
      "request": "launch",
      "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
      "runtimeExecutable": "${workspaceRoot}/node_modules/.bin/electron",
      "windows": {
        "runtimeExecutable": "${workspaceRoot}/node_modules/.bin/electron.cmd"
      },
      "args" : ["."]
    }
  ]
}

Note: For Windows, use "${workspaceRoot}/node_modules/.bin/electron.cmd" for runtimeExecutable.

3. Debugging

Set some breakpoints in main.js, and start debugging in the Debug View. You should be able to hit the breakpoints.

Here is a pre-configured project that you can download and directly debug in VSCode: https://github.com/octref/vscode-electron-debug/tree/master/electron-quick-start