Message tracing in NR5

General
1

Hi There,

So returning to one of my favourite topics - message tracing and it's usage in NR.

The split pane feature of NR5 has actually made this a lot simpler and nicer:

Screen Recording 2026-06-13 at 16.27.07

Having fixed my introspection package for NR 5, I've tested the message tracing and logging of all received messages to the debug panel. With the split pane in NR5, it's now possible to activate the message tracing and have the debug panel open at the same time.

This is great because the message tracer can also log all messages received by the nodes to the debug panel. Clicking on a node in the message tracer list then highlights that debug message with a red board in the debug panel.

Again: beware not to flood the editor, best to select a small set of nodes to be traced. Also trace first and don't log to the debug panel is also a good idea.

Now nice feature is that message tracing can be activated and deactivated without deploying the flow - this is can be used to debug a running but broken system without the reset caused by a deploy.

Also with NR5, it possible to keep open the message tracing panel while switch between other panels - this can prevent forgetting about turning off message tracing. This often happens to me that I start tracing message, switch to the debug panel and then forget that I've activated message tracing ... only to have my editor flooded. So keeping it open reminds me to turn it off!

WARNING: don't do this at home especially not the "trace ALL nodes"!!!! (this warning is the same as the type of warnings found on cigarette packets - I am not responsible and responsible adults can do whatever they like!)

2

Nice! Maybe you should apply your warning in a black bar.

You could always put an auto-trigger in place to turn off the trace after a period of time too - might be a nice failsafe.

3

And add some images of staled editors or error logs of crashed editors ... :wink:

Great idea, although I prefer a failsafe after a flood of messages instead of a time limit. Something along the lines of if X messages per second are received, automatically deactivated the message tracing else leave it.

Here X is small enough that the editor responses in a timely fashion.

4

Screenshot 2026-06-17 at 10.33.27

Fyi, with 0.14.0 I've now added a fail-safe that deactivates the tracing if >100 msg per second are being received. That is configured for both clamp more and select-and-trace mode. The limit can be overridden in the editor, how to do this is described in the readme.