I've opened a request at Core Dev. sub-section, but I'm interested how average users think about this? poll [kép] Why ? I'm asking this, because in many cases it is misleading that only a small part of the whole msg is visible at the right side. Especially since "topic" was introduced.

This was discussed recently and, if I remember correctly, it was decided that there would be an enhancement, though I don't remember exactly what was decided.

This PR is already merged for v5 - Allow a nodes defaults to be overridden by settings.js file by dceejay · Pull Request #5591 · node-red/node-red · GitHub Allows setting the defaults for that and many nodes if required.

I voted to keep msg.payload as default. I always manually set to "Complete Message", it's an "annoying" always process. In 5 years I think there were maybe 2% of cases in which I only wanted to debug msg.payload and even then I probably decided to switch to the whole message. BUT, in the beginning, having it as msg.payload by default, helped a lot in teaching me the importance of the payload property. It is basically "the main thing", especially in regards to the default nodes and in travels between servers. I think a beginner should work with the payload first, and then realize there's the msg layer, and payload is part of it, and so on. I know it sounds very "obvious" and "they should know that already" probably. Maybe make a setting "debug whole message by default", for advanced users.

Thanks, that's great but: manipulating the settings file is not user friendly at all. I need to install it to 50+ PC. Changing those always is a pain in the ... I think if v5 node.js minimum is not backported to v20, I wound be able to switch to v5, because the last version that still runs on Win7-32bit is Node.js v20. [image] kitwar: I voted to keep msg.payload as default. I always manually set to "Complete Message", it's an "annoying" always process. In 5 years I think there were maybe 2% of cases in which I only wanted to debug msg.payload and even then I probably decided to switch to the whole message. :smiley: Don't you feel You contradict yourself "a little bit"? My experience when I started to use NR: IMHO my English is not bad. (I even learned a semester as "English + programmer teacher") yet, I did not know that "payload" word, had to look up. I guess msg.data had been too easy + logical + international ... :wink: and I always forgot it, when I had to type it in a function... It always confused me, because I did not see the whole msg structure. Even yesterday I did a mistake by sending out a trigger to a 2th output via: node.send([null, {}]); instead of node.send([null, {"payload": true}]); and had to debug for 3 hours... (Because I have "tried" it in an inject node: and it seemed to work! = changed "true" to empty obj. But actually the inject sets "payload" by default, what I forgot to check.) Usually I work 6-12 weeks with NR + JS, than put it aside for 12-24 month. When I get back, I've already forgot almost everything and have to start over learning NR again. :sad_but_relieved_face:

It is often valuable to see the entire message object, but in general I prefer each debug output to occupy as little browser space as possible so I can see more payloads. I sympathise with your reluctance to edit each device to make it default to showing the entire message, but not so much that I'd be happy to edit my own 50+ devices' settings file to revert to msg.payload! :upside_down_face: Edit - I guess any change in default behaviour is only going to affect new debug nodes, so I don't need to edit my settings files. Incidentally, I understand that your Node-red devices are distributed around customers' sites. Would it be better to have a customised debug handler to pass debug messages to your HQ servers - by MQTT maybe?

[image] PizzaProgram: I need to install it to 50+ PC. Changing those always is a pain in the You need ansible.

[image] PizzaProgram: :smiley: Don't you feel You contradict yourself "a little bit"? Well simply my point was that payload as default is annoying for all most* of us experienced users, but important for beginners, I think. There has to be at least a setting to change the default once one gets over the beginner phase.

[image] kitwar: annoying for all of us experienced users Not all of us! 95% of the time I'm interested in msg.payload, sometimes msg.topic too. Both of these are available with the current default. The other 5%, occasionally other properties such as msg.url. usually i will debug just this novel property. Almost never msgid, which is just a waste of available debug space.

[image] PizzaProgram: I won’t be able to switch to v5 We won’t officially support v20 but it may still work, as I’m not (yet) aware of any v24 only features we are using, but they will no doubt creep in sooner than you would like. Also your request to change the debug default would only ever make it into v5 ( or 6) so if you really want that then you would have to change anyway…

[image] PizzaProgram: I need to install it to 50+ PC. As Colin has said, managing that number should probably be using automation if you aren't already. With automation, ensuring that all of them have the right (mostly common) settings should be easy. Changes to settings.js are needed periodically anyway due to Node-RED updates. And surely there will be other periodic changes needed across the estate?

Vote for change. Debug "payload" only || or || the whole `msg`?

General

gregorius 8 June 2026 06:52 12

Use "alias nodes" and have both. Works now, see my original response.

Topic		Replies	Views
[req.] Add to User-Settings: `[ ]` Debug `"payload"` only Core Development	10	239	12 June 2026
Debug show full message as default / configurable Feature Requests debugging , debug	7	333	12 September 2024
Keep showing msg.payload in debug node status even in object mode Feature Requests	23	1412	14 May 2020
Debug node: option to have "complete msg object" as default Feature Requests	6	1101	19 November 2020
Allow overriding debug node defaults (e.g. "Also send to console") via settings.js Feature Requests	26	337	27 March 2026

Vote for change. Debug "payload" only || or || the whole `msg`?

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