Launch a new tab in the existing/running Chrome instance

[OliverJAsh]

I have an instance of Chrome running with remote debugging enabled. I would like VS Code to launch a new tab (and/or window) in this instance and attach the debugger to it.

As far as I understand, the attach task is not what I need here, because this is intended for attaching to an existing tab.

I have tried using a launch task but it doesn't seem to open a new tab. Instead, it will navigate to url in the most recent tab, and then open a new blank tab.

{
    "type": "pwa-chrome",
    "request": "launch",
    "name": "Launch Chrome (existing)",
    "url": "http://localhost:5000",
    "webRoot": "${workspaceRoot}",
    // By default, the extension launches Chrome with a separate user profile in a temp folder. We
    // set it to `false` to launch with the default user profile instead, so we don't have to
    // reinstall extensions like React dev tools and re-configure any preferences.
    "userDataDir": false,
    "port": 9222
}

Is there a way to make it open a new tab instead?

[connor4312]

You can open a new tab manually in the browser and js-debug will attach to it. We don't have any automatic mechanism for this today, though.

[otavioschwanck]

UP here, would be awesome to change the user

[jakubnavratil]

This is still not officially supported. I would expect running multiple launch chrome configs just opens tabs in one chrome window and attaches automatically. For example debugging multiple angular projects at once (one angular.json, multiple projects).

As a workaround I use this config:

"configurations": [
    {
      "name": "Launch app",
      "type": "chrome",
      "request": "launch",
      "preLaunchTask": "Build",
      "url": "http://localhost:4206",
      "runtimeArgs": ["http://localhost:4206"]
    },
    {
      "name": "Launch Panel",
      "type": "chrome",
      "request": "launch",
      "preLaunchTask": "Build Panel",
      "url": "http://localhost:4208",
      "webRoot": "${workspaceRoot}/projects/panel",
      "runtimeArgs": ["http://localhost:4208"]
    }
  ]

So there is a need to specify runtimeArgs (not needed for the config that is launched first), but there is an issue. When it launches second config, it shows error, but it still works normally.