Inspector Debugger

The Inspector Debugger is a real-time event stream viewer that lets you validate your tracking implementation as you develop, without waiting for events to flow through your analytics pipeline. See events as they happen, inspect their properties, and catch issues before they reach production.

When to use the Inspector Debugger

Inspector debugger is one of three views in Inspector. The other two are the the Issues view and the Events view.

The Inspector debugger is particularly useful when you need to:

• During active development - Validate tracking as you build new features, seeing events appear instantly as you interact with your application without waiting for data to flow through your analytics pipeline.
• Testing in development and staging - For QA teams and data designers to run through QA flows and verify all expected events are firing with correct properties before releasing to production.
• Understanding which events are triggered where - To see which events are triggered in which parts of the application, in which order and which properties are attached to them.

What is the Inspector Debugger?

The Inspector Debugger is a live event stream view within Avo Inspector that displays events as they’re sent from your application. It provides:

Real-time event stream

See all events flowing through Inspector in real-time, organized chronologically with:

• Event name - The name of each event as it was sent
• Validation status - Whether the event is valid according to the tracking plan on the branch that you are currently on or not
• Time - Exact timestamp when the event was sent by the application
• Environment - The environment the event was sent from (currently Development and Staging are supported)
• Source - Which platform or application sent the event (e.g., Desktop, iOS, Android, Web)
• Stream ID - A unique identifier for each user stream session, color-coded for easy visual tracking

Event details and validation

Click any event to see:

• Complete property list - All properties sent with the event, including their types
• Tracking plan validation - Details on the validation status, with immediate feedback on issue types like unexpected properties, type mismatches, or missing required properties
• Event metadata - Source, version, stream session information, and timestamps
• Link to tracking plan - Quick access to view the event definition in your tracking plan

How to use the Inspector Debugger

Accessing the debugger

1. Navigate to Inspector in the left sidebar of your Avo workspace and click on Debugger in the Inspector submenu
2. The debugger will show live events from all sources by default if you are an admin, editor or a viewer that has already activated an Implementer seat.

If you are not an admin, editor or a viewer that has already activated an Implementer seat, you will see a message telling you what you need to do to get access:

• If you’re a viewer and Implementer seats are pre-purchased - You’ll be prompted to activate an Implementer seat to start debugging
• If you’re a viewer and Implementer seats can be added - You’ll be prompted to activate an Implementer seat to start debugging (this will add to your monthly active Implementer seats count)
• If you’re a viewer and no Implementer seats are available - You’ll see a message prompting you to speak to an admin to get access to Implementer slots
• If your workspace is on an older pricing plan - You’ll see a message prompting you to reach out to an admin to renew or upgrade your plan

Filtering events

Use the filters at the top of the debugger to focus your view:

• Environment filter - Filter by development or staging environments
• Source filter - Show events from specific platforms (iOS, Android, Web, etc.)
• Stream session filter - View events from a specific user stream session
• Search - Search for specific event names

Use the filters to find your stream session while debugging:

1. Filter down on the environment and source that you are triggering events from
2. Look at which stream stream ID is sending events that matches the ones that you are sending from your application, at what time

Controlling the event stream

The debugger provides controls for managing the live stream:

• Pause - Pause the event stream to inspect events without new ones appearing. Useful when you need to review a specific event in detail.
• Resume - Resume the live stream to continue receiving events
• Reset - Clear all events from the current view to start fresh. Useful when you are finding your stream session or want to start fresh.

Troubleshooting

Not seeing events in the debugger

If events aren’t appearing in the debugger:

1. Verify Inspector is installed - Check that you’ve installed Inspector for your platform
2. Check your filters - Make sure environment, source and event name filters aren’t excluding your events
3. Check your API key - Verify you’re using the correct Avo API key in your Inspector configuration

Events appear but have many issues

If you’re seeing unexpected validation issues on events you might be on the wrong branch.

1. Check your branch - Verify you’re on the correct branch that you are expecting to see events from. Switch branches in the top of the left sidebar of your Avo workspace.
2. Check your tracking plan - Verify your tracking plan definitions match the event shapes that you are seeing in the debugger

What’s next?

• Learn about the Issues view to review and manage tracking plan violations
• Learn about finding and fixing issues in Inspector
• Learn about issue types in Inspector