Skip to main content
Debug Tools lets you control WordPress debug behaviour and inspect error output from a single page. All changes are written directly to wp-config.php.
Debug settings carry production risk. See the notes on each constant below before enabling them on a live site.

Debug constants

The Debug Constants card lists all five constants with a toggle switch for each. Changes are staged in the UI — click Save Debug Settings to write them to wp-config.php.
The toggles are disabled if wp-config.php is not writable by the web server user. In that case, a warning banner appears and you must set the file permissions manually before using this feature.
ConstantEffect
WP_DEBUGEnables WordPress debug mode. Required for the other debug constants to have effect.
WP_DEBUG_LOGSaves all PHP errors, warnings, and notices to wp-content/debug.log. Safe to enable in production.
WP_DEBUG_DISPLAYEchoes errors directly to the browser screen. Do not enable in production — visitors will see raw PHP error output.
SAVEQUERIESRecords every database query in $wpdb->queries. Useful for performance analysis but slows down every page load.
SCRIPT_DEBUGForces WordPress to load unminified .dev.js and .dev.css files instead of the production-minified versions.
Constants flagged as a production risk display a Production risk badge when enabled as a reminder.

Error log viewer

The Error Log card displays the last 200 lines of your WordPress error log. The log path is auto-detected: the plugin checks for wp-content/debug.log first, then falls back to the path returned by PHP’s error_log ini setting.

Filtering by level

Use the All Levels dropdown in the header to filter the log to a specific severity:
  • Errors only — PHP Fatal error and Parse error lines.
  • WarningsPHP Warning lines.
  • NoticesPHP Notice lines.
  • DeprecatedPHP Deprecated lines.

Log actions

  • Copy — copies the full visible log content to the clipboard.
  • Refresh — re-fetches the log from the server.
  • Clear — truncates the log file to zero bytes. The action is permanent.
The Error Log Info card shows the detected log file path, whether the file currently exists, and its size on disk.

Enabling debug mode safely

1

Enable WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG

Toggle WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG on. Leave WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY off to avoid exposing errors to visitors.
2

Save the settings

Click Save Debug Settings. The plugin updates wp-config.php with the new constant values.
3

Reproduce the issue

Navigate to the page or perform the action that is causing the problem. PHP errors will be written to wp-content/debug.log.
4

View the log

Return to Debug Tools. The Error Log card now shows the captured output. Use the level filter to focus on errors if the log is noisy.
5

Copy the log for sharing

Click Copy to copy the log to the clipboard and paste it into a support ticket or issue tracker.
6

Disable debug mode when done

Toggle WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG off and click Save Debug Settings to restore a clean production configuration. Optionally click Clear to remove the log file.
Enabling WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY on a production site outputs raw PHP errors, stack traces, and file paths directly to the browser. This exposes internal server details to anyone who visits the site.

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love