Why?

By default, Winston writes to stdout/stderr. When debugging in a Node inspector client (like VS Code's Debug Console) those logs either won't make it to the debug console, or you must use some other method to capture them (like "outputCapture": "std" in VS Code), even then, they'll appear as plain strings in the Debug Console — You will not get object inspection.

This transport uses Node’s inspector.console API (based on the Chrome DevTools Protocol) to send logs directly to the inspector. The result:

• Logs show up in VS Code’s Debug Console (and Chrome DevTools, WebStorm, etc.)
• Objects remain inspectable, not stringified
• No duplication in the terminal — inspector.console does not touch stdout/stderr

Install

npm install winston-transport-debug-console

Usage

import { createLogger, format, transports } from "winston"
import { DebugConsole } from "winston-transport-debug-console"

const logger = createLogger({
    level: "debug",
    format: format.combine(format.timestamp(), format.errors({ stack: true }), format.splat()),
    transports: [
        // Show inspectable objects in VS Code Debug Console
        new DebugConsole(),

        // Keep pretty logs in the terminal too
        new transports.Console({
            format: format.combine(
                format.colorize(),
                format.timestamp(),
                format.printf(({ level, message, timestamp, ...meta }) => {
                    const extra = Object.keys(meta).length ? ` ${JSON.stringify(meta, null, 2)}` : ""
                    return `${timestamp} ${level}: ${message}${extra}`
                })
            ),
        }),
    ],
})

logger.info("User loaded", { id: 42, name: "Alice" })

In VS Code Debug Console, the id and name object are fully expandable. In your terminal, you still see pretty, colored log lines.

Logs show as originating from debug-console-transport.js:35?

If you see logs originating from debug-console-transport.js:35 and you're using VS Code, you may need to set the following in your launch.json:

"skipFiles": ["<node_internals>/**", "${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/**"]

Options

new DebugConsole({
    level: "debug", // Winston's level filter (default: "info")
    levelMap: {
        // Optional map for custom levels
        crit: "error", // Map your "crit" level to inspector.console.error
        silly: "debug",
    },
})

• levelMap: Map unsupported Winston levels to existing inspector console methods. Throws if you try to use a level that isn’t supported and isn’t mapped.

Node.js Compatibility

Requires Node.js ≥ 11.0.0 (when inspector.console was introduced). Tested on Node 18 and 20.

License?

MIT