Debugger

Project owners and editors can use the Debugger to track variables and playtest the project.

⚠️ Debug info is visible only to owners and editors; see Roles in the Workspaces section of this documentation.

Access the Debugger

To open the Debugger:

1. Open the Play Mode menu at the top of the window.
2. Click the Debug icon (bug icon). The icon is disabled if the project has no starting element and you did not quickstart from an element.

To resize the Debugger, drag its left edge. To close it, click its X button or the Debug icon again.

Undo last choice

After you make a choice in Play Mode, Undo last choice appears beside the Debugger heading. Click it to return to the previous element.

Undo restores the variable values, element visit counts, and rendered content saved before that choice. It also restores the Debugger's Previous and Current values. The previous element's Arcscript does not run again.

You can undo repeatedly until you reach the start of the current playthrough. The button disappears when there are no choices left to undo. Restarting the story clears this choice history.

Identifiers display

The top part of the Debugger displays information on the current board and element:

• Current board:
  • Board name
  • Board UUID
  • Board custom ID
• Current element:
  • Element title
  • Element UUID

Click the ID button next to the current board or element to display its identifiers. Use the copy button next to an identifier to copy it to your clipboard.

ℹ️ Uses of board and element UUIDs include accessing the items in the project's JSON, as well as targeting the element for CSS styling in the Style Editor; see the CSS basics guide.

Track variables

The area beneath the identifiers panel displays a list of the project's variables, providing real-time tracking and debugging during playthrough. Use Search variables and values to filter the list by variable name, Previous value, or Current value.

Variables appear in collapsible groups: one for global variables and one for each board or component that owns scoped variables. Each group heading shows its number of variables. Board and component groups also display the item's name and custom ID.

Each row in the list includes:

• Name: The global variable name or the custom ID of a board/component variable attribute. Scoped variables are grouped under their owning board or component and its custom ID. Hover over a name to see the variable's type.
• Previous value (editable): The variable's value before loading the current element.
• Current value: The variable's value after loading the current element.

ℹ️ When Arcweave loads an element that contains Arcscript segments, those segments execute sequentially in their defined order. If any segment assigns a new value to a variable, the update appears in the Current value column.

The Previous value field's type depends on the variable's type, as defined in the Global variable dialog or the owning board or component's attributes.

Editing a variable's Previous value allows you to test the logic of the current element. Updating this field immediately recalculates:

• The variable's Current value
• The values of any other variables updated by code within the current element
• Text content that depends on the variable (e.g., via if expressions)
• Available options that depend on the variable (e.g., via branch logic)

Color indicators

The Debugger uses orange color to flag variable values that either:

• Are manually edited by you during the playthrough.
• Have different Previous and Current values.

An orange dot in a group heading indicates that the group contains at least one variable whose Previous and Current values differ.