ironbee-node-devtools-cli

IronBee Node DevTools CLI

Command-line interface for non-blocking debugging of Node.js backend processes. Part of IronBee DevTools. Connects via the Inspector Protocol (Chrome DevTools Protocol) and provides tracepoints, logpoints, exceptionpoints, and watch expressions without pausing execution.

Installation

# Install this skill (skills.sh)
npx skills add ironbee-ai/ironbee-devtools-skills

# Install the CLI binary (same package as the rest of IronBee DevTools)
npm install -g @ironbee-ai/devtools

Requires Node.js >= 22.16.0 (engines.node in the package): the backend db domain's SQLite engine and the FTS5 scenario-search strategy run on Node's built-in node:sqlite, which replaced the last native dependency.

Port note

The browser CLI (ironbee-devtools-cli / ironbee-browser-devtools-cli) and the node CLI both default to daemon port 2020. If you want both daemons running at once, start the node daemon on a different port and pass --port to every node CLI call:

PLATFORM=node ironbee-node-devtools-cli daemon start --port 2021
ironbee-node-devtools-cli --port 2021 debug connect --pid 12345

Quick Start

# 1. Start daemon (if not running)
ironbee-node-devtools-cli daemon start

# 2. Connect to a Node.js process (by PID)
ironbee-node-devtools-cli --session-id my-debug debug connect --pid 12345

# 3. Set a tracepoint on server.js line 42
ironbee-node-devtools-cli --session-id my-debug debug put-tracepoint \
  --url-pattern "server.js" \
  --line-number 42

# 4. Trigger the code path (e.g., make API request to your app)
# 5. Get captured snapshots
ironbee-node-devtools-cli --session-id my-debug --json debug get-probe-snapshots

Global Options

Option	Description	Default
--port <number>	Daemon server port	2020
--session-id <string>	Session for Node connection persistence	auto
--json	Output as JSON (recommended for AI)	false
--quiet	Suppress log messages	false
--verbose	Enable debug output	false
--timeout <ms>	Operation timeout	30000