Attach from outside (standalone) ndb

Is there a way to leave ndb running and have scripts executed with node --inspect be picked up by it? My current workflow is I open a standalone Node inspector from within Chrome, and leave it running. As I run my scripts that debugger attaches to them.

I can’t figure out how to get a standalone ndb to attach to my script launched with node --inspect from an external terminal. Yes I know I can click specific npm scripts but my workflow is more complicated than clicking a script to run. I use commands to automatically launch build scripts when the filesystem changes, like git ls **/*.ts | entr npm run debug (which runs node --inspect).

[464bb26bac556e85b6fd6b524347b103]

1. allow user to set ports that ndb should listen and auto connects as soon as node runs,

Chrome has been unstable for me lately and I’ve been itching to switch over to something more focused. This quoted step is the biggest blocker for using ndb as a drop-in replacement in my own workflow right now.

Maybe I’m wildly off the mark here, but having this functionality out of the box could help with retention of users that otherwise would dip in to check it out, realize they can’t attach to their running process, and move back to full blown chrome where it ‘just works’.

[464bb26bac556e85b6fd6b524347b103]

That’s definitely a huge improvement in terms of convenience, for sure. From a more general perspective, though, I think the fact that it necessitates changing package.json/launch.json/etc introduces that little bit of friction that may hold people back that would otherwise experiment with it more. Again I could be clueless here but thought it might be helpful to add my view.