# Debug show full message as default / configurable

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/debug-show-full-message-as-default-configurable/90904>\
**Category:** Feature Requests\
**Tags:** debugging, debug\
**Created:** [12 September 2024 06:54 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/debug-show-full-message-as-default-configurable/90904 "2024-09-12T06:54:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ThingsTinkerer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/91b2a8/32.png) [@ThingsTinkerer](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ThingsTinkerer)\
**Post date:** [12 September 2024 06:54 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/debug-show-full-message-as-default-configurable/90904/1 "2024-09-12T06:54:26Z")

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Every time you add a new debug node, it defaults to show payload only. Virtually all times I want to see full message. Copying an existing node helps. I get that seeing the full message is confusing to new users or whatever. But for those of us who use this the most, is it any way to change this to always show full message? Perhaps a new feature in next version? It's a small thing, but the most common for me.

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**Author:** ![smanjunath211](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/smanjunath211/32/95742_2.png) [@smanjunath211](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/smanjunath211)\
**Post date:** [12 September 2024 08:15 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/debug-show-full-message-as-default-configurable/90904/2 "2024-09-12T08:15:45Z")

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I believe the category should be feature request.

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**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [12 September 2024 08:56 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/debug-show-full-message-as-default-configurable/90904/3 "2024-09-12T08:56:19Z")

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I must admit that I 2nd this. And setting the Node status message to be a msg count which I also always do. Actually, I'd prefer the node not to show the label either. 🙂

Perhaps these could be options in settings.js?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ThingsTinkerer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/91b2a8/32.png) [@ThingsTinkerer](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ThingsTinkerer)\
**Post date:** [12 September 2024 11:36 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/debug-show-full-message-as-default-configurable/90904/4 "2024-09-12T11:36:07Z")

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Thanks for moving to right category. A settings.js option would be great.

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**Author:** ![smanjunath211](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/smanjunath211/32/95742_2.png) [@smanjunath211](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/smanjunath211)\
**Post date:** [12 September 2024 11:44 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/debug-show-full-message-as-default-configurable/90904/6 "2024-09-12T11:44:27Z")

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similar request done here...

> [@Debug node output -- show complete message options](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/debug-node-output-show-complete-message-options/26577):
>
> Hi, The default output of the debug node is to show msg.payload in the sidebar. The first thing I usually do after dragging a debug node into the canvas is to edit it to show the complete message object. While this allows to see more than the payload, it also has the disadvantage of showing the message id, which can be distracting. There might be a JSONata expression which does that, but it is not really convenient to configure that all the time. Some ideas: The debug node shows the messag…

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**Author:** ![smanjunath211](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/smanjunath211/32/95742_2.png) [@smanjunath211](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/smanjunath211)\
**Post date:** [12 September 2024 11:45 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/debug-show-full-message-as-default-configurable/90904/7 "2024-09-12T11:45:53Z")

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> [@Debug node: option to have "complete msg object" as default](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/debug-node-option-to-have-complete-msg-object-as-default/36153/3):
>
> This came up in another thread just yesterday. As it stands we have no way of setting user-defined defaults for a node. I agree there are cases where it would be useful - but will require some thought as to how to do it properly.

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**Author:** ![jbudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f8ce5/32.png) [@jbudd](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/jbudd)\
**Post date:** [12 September 2024 13:04 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/debug-show-full-message-as-default-configurable/90904/8 "2024-09-12T13:04:40Z")

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I am easy if the full message is the default.  
When the debug node is set to display the whole message, topic gets displayed twice.  
 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/4/a/4a8e14124821aef5067c6b41958a5b087157dde1.png)

Which is fine for a short topic.  
Occasionally I have a complex SQL query in msg.topic and the debug becomes very unwieldy.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/a/2/a2cfb77474e4c27a5a6b3cbdf747a66dee0e4c30.png)

If the debug node gets changed, can msg.topic be truncated to say 30 characters at the top of the output?

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**Author:** ![HaroldPetersInskipp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/haroldpetersinskipp/32/42319_2.png) [@HaroldPetersInskipp](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/HaroldPetersInskipp)\
**Post date:** [12 September 2024 17:58 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/debug-show-full-message-as-default-configurable/90904/9 "2024-09-12T17:58:07Z")

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I would also like this feature, as I almost exclusively configure mine to show complete messages to get the full picture of what is going on at all times. And checking on just one of my instances, it has 700+ debug nodes configured as such (I really should've automated it by now according to [XKCD](https://xkcd.com/1205/)).

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [11 December 2024 17:58 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/debug-show-full-message-as-default-configurable/90904/10 "2024-12-11T17:58:54Z")

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