Learn how to use VS Code to debug your Alexa Skills and Google Actions built with Jovo.
Introduction
Debugging your voice application can be quite tedious at times. Using a debugger can make a big difference in your development process and is pretty easy to set up. You will learn how in this short guide.
Configuration
To use the Visual Studio Code debugger with Jovo you have to first install the Jovo CLI
locally to access it in the debugger's configuration:
After that have to configure VSCode's debugger using the Open Configurations
button. You can find the option in the Debug
tab on the menu bar. If it asks you to specify an environment select Node.js
.
Change the program
attribute to ${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/.bin/jovo
and add the "args": ["run", "--inspect=9229"]
attribute to pass arguments to the program. You also need the autoAttachChildProcesses
to be set to true
, and set the port
to 9229
. At the end it should look like this:
Test the Debugger
To test the debugger add sample breakpoints to your project and simply press F5
to start debugging. After that start your Alexa Skill or your Google Action and your app should stop at the breakpoints.
Community Articles
You can also check out the blogpost from Ben Force about debugging Jovo applications in VSCode.