vite-plugin-react-inspect

Introduction

A modern, high-performance Vite plugin that enables instant navigation to your local IDE by clicking any React element in the browser. Built with cutting-edge tooling for maximum developer productivity.

Modern "Burn the Boats" Architecture

This plugin represents a complete rewrite using modern tooling with zero legacy dependencies:

Performance Revolution

• 20-30x faster installations (Bun vs pnpm)
• 1.75x faster builds (Bun vs esbuild/tsup)
• Native bundling - Bun's built-in bundler
• Pure Vite API - eliminated unplugin abstraction layer
• 25x faster linting (Biome vs ESLint)

Modern Toolchain

• Package Manager: Bun (pnpm eliminated)
• Bundler: Bun native (tsup eliminated)
• Linter/Formatter: Biome (ESLint/Prettier eliminated)
• Plugin Framework: Pure Vite API (unplugin eliminated)
• Dependency Management: Bun catalogs for version consistency

Installation

# Install with Bun (recommended for maximum performance)
bun add vite-plugin-react-inspect -D

# Or with other package managers
npm install vite-plugin-react-inspect -D
pnpm add vite-plugin-react-inspect -D
yarn add vite-plugin-react-inspect -D

Pro Tip: Use Bun for 20-30x faster installation and development experience!

Usage

Vite Configuration

import React from '@vitejs/plugin-react'
import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import Inspector from 'vite-plugin-react-inspect'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    Inspector({
      enabled: true,
      toggleComboKey: 'meta-shift', // Default shortcut
    }),
    React(),
  ],
})

Note: Place the Inspector plugin before React plugin for optimal performance.

Options

interface VitePluginInspectorOptions {
  /**
   * Default enable state
   * @default false
   */
  enabled?: boolean

  /**
   * Define a combo key to toggle inspector
   * @default 'control-shift' on windows, 'meta-shift' on other os
   *
   * any number of modifiers `control` `shift` `alt` `meta` followed by zero or one regular key, separated by -
   * examples: control-shift, control-o, control-alt-s  meta-x control-meta
   * Some keys have native behavior (e.g. alt-s opens history menu on firefox).
   * To avoid conflicts or accidentally typing into inputs, modifier only combinations are recommended.
   * You can also disable it by setting `false`.
   */
  toggleComboKey?: string | false

  /**
   * Toggle button visibility
   * @default 'active'
   */
  toggleButtonVisibility?: 'always' | 'active' | 'never'

  /**
   * Toggle button display position
   * @default top-right
   */
  toggleButtonPos?: 'top-right' | 'top-left' | 'bottom-right' | 'bottom-left'

  /**
   * append an import to the module id ending with `appendTo` instead of adding a script into body
   * useful for frameworks that do not support transformIndexHtml hook (e.g. Nuxt3)
   *
   * WARNING: only set this if you know exactly what it does.
   */
  appendTo?: string | RegExp

  /**
   * Customize openInEditor host (e.g. http://localhost:3000)
   * @default false
   * @deprecated This option is deprecated and removed in 5.0. The plugin now automatically detects the correct host.
   */
  openInEditorHost?: string | false

  /**
   * lazy load inspector times (ms)
   * @default false
   */
  lazyLoad?: number | false

  /**
   * disable inspector on editor open
   * @default false
   */
  disableInspectorOnEditorOpen?: boolean

  /**
   * Target editor when open in editor
   *
   * @default process.env.LAUNCH_EDITOR ?? 'code' (Visual Studio Code)
   */
  launchEditor?: 'appcode' | 'atom' | 'atom-beta' | 'brackets' | 'clion' | 'code' | 'code-insiders' | 'codium' | 'emacs' | 'idea' | 'notepad++' | 'pycharm' | 'phpstorm' | 'rubymine' | 'sublime' | 'vim' | 'visualstudio' | 'webstorm' | 'rider' | 'cursor' | string

  /**
   * Disable animation/transition, will auto disable when `prefers-reduced-motion` is set
   * @default false
   */
  reduceMotion?: boolean
}

Development with Modern Tooling

This project uses cutting-edge tooling for the best developer experience:

Bun Development Commands

# Install dependencies (20-30x faster than npm/pnpm)
bun install

# Development mode
bun run dev

# Build for production
bun run build

# Lint and format with Biome (25x faster than ESLint)
bun run lint

# Auto-format code
bun run format

# Type checking
bun run check

Example

• React Playground

Supported editors

| Value | Editor | Linux | Windows | OSX | |--------|------|:------:|:------:|:------:| | appcode | AppCode | | |✓| | atom | Atom |✓|✓|✓| | atom-beta | Atom Beta | | |✓| | brackets | Brackets |✓|✓|✓| | clion | Clion | |✓|✓| | code | Visual Studio Code |✓|✓|✓| | code-insiders | Visual Studio Code Insiders |✓|✓|✓| | codium | VSCodium |✓|✓|✓| | emacs | Emacs |✓| | | | idea | IDEA |✓|✓|✓| | notepad++ | Notepad++ | |✓| | | pycharm | PyCharm |✓|✓|✓| | phpstorm | PhpStorm |✓|✓|✓| | rubymine | RubyMine |✓|✓|✓| | sublime | Sublime Text |✓|✓|✓| | vim | Vim |✓| | | | visualstudio | Visual Studio | | |✓| | webstorm | WebStorm |✓|✓|✓| | rider | Rider |✓|✓|✓| | cursor | Cursor |✓|✓|✓|

Configuration IDE / Editor

We recommend using the launchEditor option configuration to specify the IDE (Please ensure that the editor's environment variables are correctly configured beforehand.)

It uses an environment variable named LAUNCH_EDITOR to specify an IDE application, but if you do not set this variable, it will try to open a common IDE that you have open or installed once it is certified.

For example, if you want it always open VS Code when inspection clicked, set export LAUNCH_EDITOR=code in your shell.

VS Code

• install VS Code command line tools, see the official docs

• set env to shell, like .bashrc or .zshrc

  export LAUNCH_EDITOR=code

VS Code with WSL (Windows)

• add the configuration in the settings.json

• restart the VS Code (All Windows should be closed to take effect)

{
  // other config...

  "terminal.integrated.env.linux": {
    "EDITOR": "code"
  }
}

WebStorm

• just set env with an absolute path to shell, like .bashrc or .zshrc (only MacOS)

  export LAUNCH_EDITOR='/Applications/WebStorm.app/Contents/MacOS/webstorm'

OR

• install WebStorm command line tools

• then set env to shell, like .bashrc or .zshrc

  export LAUNCH_EDITOR=webstorm

PhpStorm

• just set env with an absolute path to shell, like .bashrc or .zshrc (only MacOS)

  export LAUNCH_EDITOR='/Applications/PhpStorm.app/Contents/MacOS/phpstorm'

OR

• install PhpStorm command line tools

• then set env to shell, like .bashrc or .zshrc

  export LAUNCH_EDITOR=phpstorm

Vim

Yes! you can also use vim if you want, just set env to shell

export LAUNCH_EDITOR=vim

Important Notes

• Development Only: This plugin only works in development mode for security reasons
• Modern Architecture: Requires modern tooling (Bun recommended) for best performance
• Template Engines: Currently supports JSX/TSX only, not template engines like Pug
• Breaking Changes: v2.0+ uses modern Bun ecosystem - see migration guide if upgrading from v1.x

Programmatic Usage

You can also use control inspector programmatically, by accessing the __REACT_INSPECTOR__ global variable.

import type { ReactInspectorClient } from 'vite-plugin-react-inspect'

const inspector: ReactInspectorClient = window.__REACT_INSPECTOR__

if (inspector) {
  // Enable inspector
  inspector.enable()
  
  // Disable inspector
  inspector.disable()
  
  // Toggle inspector state
  inspector.toggleEnabled()
  
  // Check if enabled
  console.log(inspector.enabled) // boolean
}

Migration Benefits

This plugin represents the future of Vite plugin development with measurable performance improvements:

Performance Benchmarks

• Installation: 20-30x faster with Bun vs pnpm/npm
• Build Times: 1.75x faster with Bun native bundler vs tsup/esbuild
• Linting: 25x faster with Biome vs ESLint/Prettier
• Bundle Size: Reduced due to eliminated unplugin abstraction
• Development Server: Faster startup with pure Vite API integration

Code Quality Improvements

• Zero legacy dependencies: Eliminated pnpm, tsup, unplugin, ESLint
• Modern TypeScript: Strict type safety throughout
• Unified toolchain: Single-tool approach reduces complexity
• Consistent versioning: Bun catalogs prevent version mismatches

Credits

This modern rewrite is heavily based on vite-plugin-vue-inspector by webfansplz, adapted and modernized for React.

Also inspired by:

• react-dev-inspector for React-specific implementations
• vite-plugin-svelte-inspector for implementation patterns

License

MIT LICENSE