Default Flutter app as rendered on macOS.

  </div>

{% endcomment %}

d. At this point, VS Code displays:

  - In the **Editor Groups**:
    - The highlighted breakpoint in `main.dart`
    - The widget hierarchy for the Flutter app
      in the **Widget Tree** of the **Widget Inspector** 
  - In the **side bar**:
    - The state of the app in the **Call Stack** section
    - The value of the `this` local variable in the **Variables** section
  - In the **panel**:
    - The log of the Flutter app in the **Debug console**

{% comment %} {:width="100%"} {% endcomment %}

The Flutter plugin for VS Code adds a number of components to the VS Code user interface.

When launched, the Flutter debugger adds debugging tools to the VS Code interface.

The following screenshot and table explain the purpose of each tool.

{:.table .table-striped}

To change where the panel (in orange) appears in VS Code, go to View > Appearance > Panel Position.

The toolbar allows you to debug using any debugger. You can step in, out, and over Dart statements, hot reload, or resume the app.

{:.table .table-striped}

For the remainder of this guide, you need to update the test Flutter app. This update adds native code to debug.

1. Open the lib/main.dart file using your preferred IDE.

2. Replace the contents of main.dart with the following code.

   Expand to see Flutter code for this example

   // Copyright 2023 The Flutter Authors. All rights reserved.
   // Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
   // found in the LICENSE file.
   
   import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
   import 'package:url_launcher/url_launcher.dart';
   
   void main() {
     runApp(const MyApp());
   }
   
   class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
     const MyApp({super.key});
   
     @override
     Widget build(BuildContext context) {
       return MaterialApp(
         title: 'URL Launcher',
         theme: ThemeData(
           colorSchemeSeed: Colors.purple,
           brightness: Brightness.light,
         ),
         home: const MyHomePage(title: 'URL Launcher'),
       );
     }
   }
   
   class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
     const MyHomePage({super.key, required this.title});
     final String title;
   
     @override
     State<MyHomePage> createState() => _MyHomePageState();
   }
   
   class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
     Future<void>? _launched;
   
     Future<void> _launchInBrowser(Uri url) async {
       if (!await launchUrl(
         url,
         mode: LaunchMode.externalApplication,
       )) {
         throw Exception('Could not launch $url');
       }
     }
   
     Future<void> _launchInWebView(Uri url) async {
       if (!await launchUrl(
         url,
         mode: LaunchMode.inAppWebView,
       )) {
         throw Exception('Could not launch $url');
       }
     }
   
     Widget _launchStatus(BuildContext context, AsyncSnapshot<void> snapshot) {
       if (snapshot.hasError) {
         return Text('Error: ${snapshot.error}');
       } else {
         return const Text('');
       }
     }
   
     @override
     Widget build(BuildContext context) {
       final Uri toLaunch = Uri(
           scheme: 'https',
           host: 'docs.flutter.dev',
           path: 'testing/native-debugging');
       return Scaffold(
         appBar: AppBar(
           title: Text(widget.title),
         ),
         body: Center(
           child: Column(
             mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
             children: <Widget>[
               Padding(
                 padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16),
                 child: Text(toLaunch.toString()),
               ),
               FilledButton(
                 onPressed: () => setState(() {
                   _launched = _launchInBrowser(toLaunch);
                 }),
                 child: const Text('Launch in browser'),
               ),
               const Padding(padding: EdgeInsets.all(16)),
               FilledButton(
                 onPressed: () => setState(() {
                   _launched = _launchInWebView(toLaunch);
                 }),
                 child: const Text('Launch in app'),
               ),
               const Padding(padding: EdgeInsets.all(16.0)),
               FutureBuilder<void>(future: _launched, builder: _launchStatus),
             ],
           ),
         ),
       );
     }
   }

3. To add the url_launcher package as a dependency, run flutter pub add:

   $ flutter pub add url_launcher

   Resolving dependencies... 
     collection 1.17.1 (1.17.2 available)
   + flutter_web_plugins 0.0.0 from sdk flutter
     matcher 0.12.15 (0.12.16 available)
     material_color_utilities 0.2.0 (0.8.0 available)
   + plugin_platform_interface 2.1.4
     source_span 1.9.1 (1.10.0 available)
     stream_channel 2.1.1 (2.1.2 available)
     test_api 0.5.1 (0.6.1 available)
   + url_launcher 6.1.11
   + url_launcher_android 6.0.36
   + url_launcher_ios 6.1.4
   + url_launcher_linux 3.0.5
   + url_launcher_macos 3.0.5
   + url_launcher_platform_interface 2.1.3
   + url_launcher_web 2.0.17
   + url_launcher_windows 3.0.6
   Changed 10 dependencies!

4. To check what changed with the codebase:

   {: type="a"}

   1. In Linux or macOS, run this find command.

      $ find ./ -mmin -120 

      ./ios/Flutter/Debug.xcconfig
      ./ios/Flutter/Release.xcconfig
      ./linux/flutter/generated_plugin_registrant.cc
      ./linux/flutter/generated_plugins.cmake
      ./macos/Flutter/Flutter-Debug.xcconfig
      ./macos/Flutter/Flutter-Release.xcconfig
      ./macos/Flutter/GeneratedPluginRegistrant.swift
      ./pubspec.lock
      ./pubspec.yaml
      ./windows/flutter/generated_plugin_registrant.cc
      ./windows/flutter/generated_plugins.cmake

   2. In Windows, run this command in the command prompt.

      Get-ChildItem C:\dev\example\ -Rescurse | Where-Object {$_.LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Date).AddDays(-1)}

      C:\dev\example\ios\Flutter\
      
      
      Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
      ----                -------------         ------ ----
                      8/1/2025   9:15 AM                Debug.xcconfig
                      8/1/2025   9:15 AM                Release.xcconfig
      
      C:\dev\example\linux\flutter\
      
      
      Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
      ----                -------------         ------ ----
                      8/1/2025   9:15 AM                generated_plugin_registrant.cc
                      8/1/2025   9:15 AM                generated_plugins.cmake
      
      C:\dev\example\macos\Flutter\
      
      
      Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
      ----                -------------         ------ ----
                      8/1/2025   9:15 AM                Flutter-Debug.xcconfig
                      8/1/2025   9:15 AM                Flutter-Release.xcconfig
                      8/1/2025   9:15 AM                GeneratedPluginRegistrant.swift
      
      C:\dev\example\
      
      
      Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
      ----                -------------         ------ ----
                      8/1/2025   9:15 AM                pubspec.lock
                      8/1/2025   9:15 AM                pubspec.yaml
      
      C:\dev\example\windows\flutter\
      
      
      Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
      ----                -------------         ------ ----
                      8/1/2025   9:15 AM                generated_plugin_registrant.cc
                      8/1/2025   9:15 AM                generated_plugins.cmake

Installing url_launcher added config files and code files for all target platforms in the Flutter app directory.

This section explains how to debug the Dart code in your Flutter app and any native code with its regular debugger. This capability allows you to leverage Flutter's hot reload when editing native code.

To debug native Android code, you need a Flutter app that contains Android code. In this section, you learn how to connect the Dart, Java, and Kotlin debuggers to your app. You don't need VS Code to debug both Dart and Android code. This guide includes the VS Code instructions to be consistent with the Xcode and Visual Studio guides.

These section uses the same example Flutter url_launcher app created in Update test Flutter app.

{% include docs/debug/debug-flow-android.md %}

To debug iOS code, you need a Flutter app that contains iOS code. In this section, you learn to connect two debuggers to your app: Flutter via VS Code and Xcode. You need to run both VS Code and Xcode.

These section uses the same example Flutter url_launcher app created in Update test Flutter app.

{% include docs/debug/debug-flow-ios.md %}

To debug macOS code, you need a Flutter app that contains macOS code. In this section, you learn to connect two debuggers to your app: Flutter via VS Code and Xcode. You need to run both VS Code and Xcode.

These section uses the same example Flutter url_launcher app created in Update test Flutter app.

{% include docs/debug/debug-flow-macos.md %}

To debug C++ code, you need a Flutter app that contains C++ code. In this section, you learn to connect two debuggers to your app: Flutter via VS Code and Visual Studio. You need to run both VS Code and Visual Studio.

These section uses the same example Flutter url_launcher app created in Update test Flutter app.

{% include docs/debug/debug-flow-windows.md %}

Check out the following resources on debugging Flutter, iOS, Android, macOS and Windows:

• Debugging Flutter apps
• Flutter inspector and the DevTools docs
• Performance profiling

You can find the following debugging resources on developer.android.com.

• Debug your app
• Android Debug Bridge (adb)

You can find the following debugging resources on developer.apple.com.

• Debugging
• Instruments Help

You can find debugging resources on Microsoft Learn.

• Visual Studio Debugger
• Learn to debug C++ code using Visual Studio