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…

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…

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…

[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 ge…

[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 n…

[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 eve…

[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 perio…

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

General

knolleary 8 June 2026 08:30 13

No. Node-RED 5 will refuse to run on anything prior to 22. There are simply too many security issues with old versions of dependencies that we had to move up the baseline.

:tada: Node-RED 5 now available

Topic		Replies	Views
[req.] Add to User-Settings: `[ ]` Debug `"payload"` only Core Development	10	129	12 June 2026
Debug show full message as default / configurable Feature Requests debugging , debug	7	255	12 September 2024
Keep showing msg.payload in debug node status even in object mode Feature Requests	23	1314	14 May 2020
Debug node: option to have "complete msg object" as default Feature Requests	6	1058	19 November 2020
Allow overriding debug node defaults (e.g. "Also send to console") via settings.js Feature Requests	26	154	27 March 2026

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

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