Use a native language debugger

If you write Flutter apps only with Dart code, you can debug your code using your IDE's debugger. The Flutter team recommends VS Code.

If you write a platform-specific plugin or use platform-specific libraries, you can debug that portion of your code with a native debugger.

• To debug iOS or macOS code written in Swift or Objective-C, you can use Xcode.
• To debug Android code written in Java or Kotlin, you can use Android Studio.
• To debug Windows code written in C++, you can use Visual Studio.

This guide shows you how you can connect two debuggers to your Dart app, one for Dart, and one for the native code.

This guide describes how to use VS Code to debug your Flutter app. You can also use your preferred IDE with the Flutter and Dart plugins installed and configured.

The following procedure explains how to use the Dart debugger with the default sample Flutter app. The featured components in VS Code work and appear when debugging your own Flutter project as well.

1. Create a basic Flutter app.

   $ flutter create my_app

   Creating project my_app...
   Resolving dependencies in my_app... 
   Got dependencies in my_app.
   Wrote 129 files.
   
   All done!
   You can find general documentation for Flutter at: https://docs.flutter.dev/
   Detailed API documentation is available at: https://api.flutter.dev/
   If you prefer video documentation, consider: https://www.youtube.com/c/flutterdev
   
   In order to run your application, type:
   
     $ cd my_app
     $ flutter run
   
   Your application code is in my_app/lib/main.dart.

   $ cd my_app

2. Open the lib\main.dart file in the Flutter app using VS Code.

3. Click the bug icon (). This opens the following panes in VS Code:

   • Debug
   • Debug Console
   • Widget Inspector

   The first time you run the debugger takes the longest.

4. Test the debugger.

   a. In main.dart, click on this line:

   dart

   _counter++;

   b. Press Shift + F9. This adds a breakpoint where the _counter variable increments.

   c. In the app, click the + button to increment the counter. The app pauses.

   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

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.

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.

Icon	Action	Default keyboard shortcut
	Start or Resume	F5
	Pause	F6
	Step Over	F10
	Step Into	F11
	Step Out	Shift + F11
	Hot Reload	Ctrl + F5
	Hot Restart	Shift + Special + F5
	Stop	Shift + F5
	Open Widget Inspector

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

   lib/main.dart

   dart

   // 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:

   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.

      powershell

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

      powershell

      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.

To generate the needed Android platform dependencies, run the flutter build command.

flutter build appbundle --debug

Running Gradle task 'bundleDebug'...                               27.1s
✓ Built build/app/outputs/bundle/debug/app-debug.aab.

• Start from VS Code
• Start from Android Studio

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.

To generate the needed iOS platform dependencies, run the flutter build command.

$ flutter build ios --config-only --no-codesign --debug

Warning: Building for device with codesigning disabled. You will have to manually codesign before deploying to device.
Building com.example.myApp for device (ios)...

• Start from VS Code
• Start from Xcode

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.

To generate the needed macOS platform dependencies, run the flutter build command.

flutter build macos --debug

Building macOS application...

• Start from VS Code
• Start from Xcode

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.

To generate the needed Windows platform dependencies, run the flutter build command.

C:\> flutter build windows --debug

Building Windows application...                                    31.4s
√  Built build\windows\runner\Debug\my_app.exe.

• Start from VS Code
• Start from Visual Studio

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