# Looking for feedback — features you'd want in a Node-RED Protocol Inspector plugin

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/looking-for-feedback-features-youd-want-in-a-node-red-protocol-inspector-plugin/101443>\
**Category:** Developing Nodes\
**Created:** [10 July 2026 09:57 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/looking-for-feedback-features-youd-want-in-a-node-red-protocol-inspector-plugin/101443 "2026-07-10T09:57:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

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**Author:** ![gregorius](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/gregorius/32/73816_2.png) [@gregorius](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/gregorius)\
**Post date:** [10 July 2026 17:05 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/looking-for-feedback-features-youd-want-in-a-node-red-protocol-inspector-plugin/101443/3 "2026-07-10T17:05:12Z")

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> [@lizzardguki](#):
>
> - Payload inspection (headers, body, timing)

I've done that using [message tracing](https://github.com/gorenje/node-red-contrib-introspection#message-tracing) with my introspection package. That basically covers all use cases I have for inspecting live traffic through my flows.

It also integrates the debug panel, so I can do all my filtering using that panel.

> [@lizzardguki](#):
>
> 1. Performance concerns

When I started talking about message tracing here in the [forum](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/message-tracing-for-beginners/92287), that was the first comment: _don't do this, it will kill the editor performance_. Well it didn't but just in case it does, I did recently add [rate limiting](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/message-tracing-in-nr5/101278/4) to it.

Even if there is a risk of performance degradation, a little clarity/insight can go a long way so the trade off is probably well worth it.

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