Developer tools in Session Replay provide technical panels that display data captured during a visitor’s session with your web application. These tools help technical teams investigate issues more quickly and reduce the need for repeated communication between teams.
Developer tools include two types of logs that you can view in the replay player: console logs and network logs. The Replay Triage skill uses these same logs to diagnose a bug from a replay and propose a code fix in your AI client.
Note: Developer tools are only supported for web apps using the install script. They aren't available for browser extension or mobile apps.
If you use Agent Toolkit, the Collect all console and network errors setting captures error-level console logs and failed network requests even when no replay is recording, and those errors also appear alongside your replays. For details, see Improve Fin resolution rate with session context.
Use cases
Developer tools provide detailed technical context for each replay, helping product, support, and engineering teams troubleshoot issues more effectively. By surfacing console messages and network activity alongside the replay timeline, teams can identify errors faster and reduce the need for customer follow-ups. They help you:
- Investigate failed interactions and application errors in context.
- Review browser console messages and network requests together to identify root causes.
- Search and filter technical data to identify issues more quickly.
- Share replays with context that engineering teams can act on immediately.
Console logs
Use console logs to review messages logged by your app during a visitor’s session.
How it works
After a subscription admin activates console logs for an application, you can turn on the Developer tools toggle in the replay player.
Console logs capture the levels selected for the application in Console log levels. Selecting a level also includes every more severe level:
-
Info captures
console.log(),console.info(),console.warn(), andconsole.error()messages. This is the default. -
Warning captures
console.warn()andconsole.error()messages. -
Error captures only
console.error()messages, to minimize performance impact.
The Error level also includes uncaught exceptions, unhandled promise rejections, and enforced Content Security Policy (CSP) violations. Report-only CSP violations are captured at the Warning level. Levels you don't select are never sent from the visitor's browser. Console logs don't capture other browser-generated messages, such as network failures or forced errors.
Pendo automatically scrubs these values from captured console logs:
- IP addresses.
- Social Security numbers.
- Credit card numbers.
- HTTPS URLs.
Scrubbing uses fixed patterns and can’t be customized. Depending on your application's implementation, other sensitive values might still appear.
When developer tools are on, they replace the right-side panel in the replay player. To return to the standard view, select the X in the top-right corner of the panel. Developer tools stay on until you turn them off or close the panel, and they remain active as you watch other replays.
Activate console logs
Subscription admins and users with the Edit Application Details permission can activate console log capture for Session Replay. You must activate console logs for each application you want to capture.
- Go to Settings > Subscription settings > Applications.
- Select an application.
- In the Basic settings section, find Console log capture and select Enable.
- In Console log levels, select the levels you want to capture. All three levels are selected by default, and at least one level must be selected.
- Review the data privacy notice and enter I accept in the confirmation field.
- Select Enable.
- Repeat these steps for each application where you want to capture console logs.
Note: Choosing levels requires Pendo Web SDK 2.346.0 or later. If your app uses an earlier version, Console log levels is unavailable and all levels are captured. For more information about updating, see Pendo Web SDK settings.
Important: Console logs are only available for replays captured after this setting is turned on.
Change console log levels
When console log capture is on, Console log capture shows the levels captured for the application. To change them:
- In the Basic settings section, select Edit beside Console log capture.
- In Edit console log levels, select the levels you want to capture.
- Enter I accept in the confirmation field, then select Save.
The new levels apply to console logs captured after you save. Logs already captured don't change. To stop capturing console logs, select Disable instead.
View console logs
When you turn on the Developer tools toggle in the replay player, a console log panel appears beside the playback and timeline.
As the replay progresses, logs automatically scroll to match the visitor’s actions. You can:
- Search logs for specific text.
- Select a timestamp in a log to go to that moment in the replay.
- Select a log line to expand details.
- Copy log details to share with others.
- Select Errors in the console log panel to only display error messages.
Logs are included when you save or share a replay clip. Each entry is limited to 1,000 characters, and longer messages are truncated with an ellipsis (...).
Network logs
Use network logs to view browser requests and responses alongside the replay timeline.
How it works
Network logs capture requests and responses between the browser and your backend systems during a visitor’s recorded session. When paired with a replay, they help you understand the context of failed interactions, errors, and backend calls without needing to request logs separately.
The Network tab appears within the Developer tools panel of the replay player. As the replay progresses, network activity scrolls in sync with the timeline. Selecting a request shows the method, status code, headers, and (if configured) the body data. Failed requests are marked with a red indicator.
When developer tools are on, they replace the right-side panel in the replay player. To return to the standard view, select the X in the top-right corner of the panel. Developer tools stay on until you turn them off or close the panel, and they remain active as you watch other replays.
Configure network capture
We recommend configuring what data is collected before activating network log capture in your application settings.
By default, Pendo captures:
All request URLs.
A limited set of safe headers.
Pendo doesn't capture:
Request or response bodies (unless explicitly configured).
Any denied headers, even if manually added.
The following headers are never captured, even through callback:
AuthorizationProxy-AuthorizationCookieSet-CookieX-API-KeyX-Forwarded-ForX-CSRF-Token(and variants using regex)SignatureForwardedReferrer
Pendo automatically redacts personally identifiable information (PII), including:
IP addresses.
Social Security numbers.
Credit card numbers.
HTTPS URLs.
Passwords.
Emails.
Keys.
Tokens.
Authentication fields.
To customize what’s captured, you can use callback functions for request and response bodies. For implementation details, see our web SDK API documentation on Network logs.
Activate network logs
Only subscription admins can activate network log capture for Session Replay. You must activate network logs for each application you want to capture.
- Go to Settings > Subscription settings > Applications.
- Select an application.
- In the Basic settings section, find Network log capture.
- Select Enable, then review the data privacy notice and enter I accept in the confirmation field.
- Select Enable.
- Repeat these steps for each application where you want to capture network logs.
Important: Network logs are only available for replays captured after this setting is turned on.
View and filter network logs
When you switch to the Network tab in a replay's developer tools, a list of captured network requests appears.
Each request includes the method, URL, and status code. You can:
- Filter by request method (for example, GET, POST, PUT, or PATCH).
- Filter by response status code.
- Search for specific strings in headers or bodies.
- Select a network request to view headers and bodies (if configured).
Pendo captures all request URLs and a set of safe headers by default.
Logs are included when you save or share a replay clip. Each entry is limited to 1,000 characters, and longer messages are truncated with an ellipsis (...).
Log retention and deletion
Console and network logs captured in Session Replay are treated as standard Pendo events and are retained in accordance with your subscription's data retention policy, not replay retention.
If you need to delete log data before your retention period ends, contact our support team.