Eruda
A debugging console you add to a web page to inspect logs and errors on mobile browsers.
- Stars
- 21.2k
- Forks
- 1.4k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- JavaScript
- Last update
- 1.3 years ago
- Type
- Library
No commits in over a year — check for forks or alternatives before adopting.
What it is
Eruda is a developer console that runs inside a web page, so you can see console output, errors, and page details directly on a phone or tablet. You add a script tag to your page and call eruda.init(), and a panel appears that you can open while testing on a mobile device. It is aimed at checking how a website behaves in mobile browsers, where normal desktop developer tools are often not available.
- Read console.log output from a page open on a phone
- Inspect page errors while testing a mobile web layout
- Load it from a CDN for a quick check without changing your project's dependencies
Great for
- Web developers testing a site on a phone or tablet
- Front-end developers who need console logs without connecting a device to a desktop debugger
- Teams checking mobile layouts or script errors during development
Not ideal for
- Developers who only work on desktop browsers, since the built-in browser tools already cover that case
- Production sites where a debugging panel would be visible to end users unless it is removed or gated
- People looking for a finished end-user app; this is a developer tool added to pages
How to get it
- 1
Install with a package manager
You'll need: Node.js and npm (for the npm install route)
Install from npm as a dev dependency
npm install eruda --save-dev - 2
Run it
- Install the package with npm, or use the jsDelivr CDN script tag
- Add the script tag to your page's HTML
- Add a script that calls eruda.init()
- Open the page on your phone and look for the console panel
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Use the jsDelivr CDN script for quick checks without installing anything
- Read the documentation site at eruda.liriliri.io/docs for configuration options
- Look at the related projects such as eruda-android for automatic loading in a webview
- Use the third-party plugins listed in the README, such as the webpack plugin, to integrate with your build
Downloads
Strengths
- Simple setup: a script tag and one init call, per the README
- Available through npm, jsDelivr, and cdnjs
- MIT licensed and widely starred on GitHub
Trade-offs
- Only documented as a page-level script, so it is not a full standalone debugger
- The README is brief; detailed usage is in external documentation I could not check here
- Adding it to a live site means you must remember to remove it before release
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| eruda (this) | 21.2k | Library | beginner | 1.3 years ago | Web developers testing a site on a phone or tablet |
| xterm.js | 21.3k | Library | intermediate | 7 days ago | Developers building a browser-based IDE or cloud workspace that needs an integrated terminal |
| getx | 11.2k | Library | beginner | 5 days ago | Flutter developers who want state management, routing and dependency injection from a single package |
| ionic-framework | 52.7k | Library | intermediate | 4 days ago | Web developers who want to build mobile apps using existing web skills |
| swiper | 41.9k | Library | intermediate | 6 days ago | Front-end developers adding a swipeable slider or image gallery to a website |
| vant | 24.4k | Library | beginner | 4 days ago | Teams building mobile-first web apps or H5 pages in Vue |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.