Capturing Bugs

Developer Context (DevTools)

Every Crosscheck capture automatically includes developer context alongside the visual evidence. When you take a screenshot, record your screen, or save an instant replay, Crosscheck collects console logs, network requests, and user actions from the page in the background. This turns every capture into a self-contained bug report with the technical detail developers need to reproduce and fix issues.

No setup required
Developer context is captured automatically. Crosscheck activates automatically when you visit a page, so it begins recording console output, network activity, and user interactions as soon as the page loads. There is nothing to configure.

What Gets Captured

Developer context is organized into four categories. Each category is viewable in its own tab on the check detail page.

Console Logs

All console output from the page including errors, warnings, info messages, and general log statements. Each entry shows the log level, message content, and timestamp.

Network Requests

Every HTTP request made by the page. Includes the URL, HTTP method, response status code, timing data, and request/response headers.

User Actions

A timeline of user interactions on the page: clicks, double clicks, keypresses, and navigation events. Each action has a timestamp for correlation with the capture.

Performance

Page performance metrics including TTFB, DOMContentLoaded, page load time, and First Contentful Paint. Helps identify performance-related issues alongside visual bugs.

Console Logs

Crosscheck intercepts all calls to the browser console API. The following log levels are captured and displayed with color-coded badges in the check detail view.

LevelDescriptionCommon Sources
ErrorRuntime errors, uncaught exceptions, and failed assertionsJavaScript exceptions, failed API calls, React error boundaries
WarningDeprecation notices, potential issues, and non-critical problemsDeprecated API usage, missing keys in React lists, CSP warnings
InfoGeneral informational messages logged by the applicationApplication state changes, feature flags, user events
LogGeneral-purpose log output from the applicationVariable dumps, state logging, function traces

Filtering Console Logs

When reviewing captured console logs, you can filter by log level to focus on errors or warnings. The check detail view provides toggle buttons for each log level so you can quickly narrow down the relevant entries.

Network Requests

All XHR and Fetch requests made by the page are recorded, including requests that were initiated before the capture. Each request entry contains the following data.

FieldDescription
URLThe full request URL including query parameters
MethodHTTP method (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH, etc.)
Status CodeThe HTTP response status code (200, 404, 500, etc.)
TimingHow long the request took from initiation to completion
Request HeadersHeaders sent with the request (sensitive headers may be filtered)
Response HeadersHeaders received in the response
Sensitive data filtering
Crosscheck automatically filters out common sensitive headers such as Authorization and Cookie to avoid exposing credentials in shared captures. See the DevTools Data Filtering page for more details.

User Actions Timeline

The user action timeline tracks interactions on the page and presents them in chronological order. This helps developers understand exactly what the user did before and during the capture.

Action TypeDetails Captured
ClickElement selector, coordinates, and the text content of the clicked element
NavigationURL changes including pushState, replaceState, and full page navigations
Double ClickElement selector and coordinates of the double-clicked element
KeypressKeyboard interactions on the page

How Developer Context Capture Works

Understanding how devtools data flows from the page to your capture.

1

Automatic activation

Crosscheck activates automatically when you visit a page, before the page has fully loaded. This ensures that console logs and network requests are captured from the very beginning of the page lifecycle.
2

Continuous recording

Crosscheck automatically captures console output, network activity, and performance data, and tracks user interactions on the page. All data is buffered in memory.
3

Capture triggered

When you take a screenshot, recording, or replay, the extension collects the buffered devtools data securely from the page to the extension.
4

Upload and storage

The technical data is securely uploaded alongside your capture. For recordings, timestamps are synchronized so console entries and network requests align with the video timeline.

Developer context panel showing console logs, network requests, and user action tabs

The four devtools tabs on a check detail page

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Developer Context

Reproduce before capturing
For the best devtools data, navigate to the page and reproduce the bug before triggering the capture. This ensures the relevant console errors and failed network requests are included in the captured data.
Use with screen recordings
Developer context is especially powerful with screen recordings. The console logs and network requests are timestamped to match the video, so reviewers can see exactly what happened in the DevTools at any point in the recording.
Last updated: March 2026