Built-in Panels¶

The debug toolbar ships with a comprehensive set of panels for debugging and profiling your application.

Panel Quick Reference¶

Panel	Category	Auto-Enabled	Description
Timer	Default	Yes	Request timing and CPU time
Request	Default	Yes	HTTP method, path, headers, cookies
Response	Default	Yes	Status code, response headers
Logging	Default	Yes	Log records captured during request
Versions	Default	Yes	Python and package versions
Headers	Optional	No	Categorized headers with security analysis
Settings	Optional	No	Application configuration viewer
Templates	Optional	No	Jinja2/Mako render tracking
Profiling	Optional	No	cProfile/pyinstrument with flame graphs
Alerts	Optional	No	Proactive issue detection
Memory	Optional	No	Memory profiling (tracemalloc/memray)
Cache	Optional	No	Redis/memcached tracking
WebSocket	Auto	Yes*	Real-time WebSocket connection tracking
Routes	Litestar	Yes	Application routes
Events	Litestar	Yes	Lifecycle hooks and exception handlers
SQLAlchemy	Extra	No	Query tracking with N+1 detection

Default Panels¶

These panels are enabled by default and provide essential debugging information.

Timer Panel¶

ID: TimerPanel

Displays request timing information:

Total request duration
CPU time (user + system)
Server-Timing header data

Request Panel¶

ID: RequestPanel

Shows incoming request details:

HTTP method and path
Query parameters
Headers
Cookies
Client information

Response Panel¶

ID: ResponsePanel

Displays response information:

Status code
Response headers
Content type
Content length

Logging Panel¶

ID: LoggingPanel

Captures log records during the request:

Log level
Logger name
Message
Source location
Error/warning counts

Versions Panel¶

ID: VersionsPanel

Shows environment information:

Python version
Platform details
Installed packages

Optional Core Panels¶

These panels are available out of the box but must be explicitly enabled via extra_panels in your configuration.

Headers Panel¶

ID: HeadersPanel

Detailed HTTP header inspection with security analysis:

Request headers categorized by type (content, caching, auth, CORS, etc.)
Response headers with security analysis
Missing security headers detection (CSP, X-Content-Type-Options, etc.)
Cookie parsing and analysis
Authorization header parsing (Basic, Bearer, etc.)
Cache-Control directive breakdown

Enable in config:

config = LitestarDebugToolbarConfig(
    extra_panels=["debug_toolbar.core.panels.headers.HeadersPanel"],
)

Settings Panel¶

ID: SettingsPanel

Application configuration viewer:

Toolbar configuration settings
App settings and environment
Sensitive data redaction (passwords, secrets, API keys)
Django-style settings support (when applicable)

Enable in config:

config = LitestarDebugToolbarConfig(
    extra_panels=["debug_toolbar.core.panels.settings.SettingsPanel"],
)

Templates Panel¶

ID: TemplatesPanel

Template rendering tracking for Jinja2 and Mako:

Template render times
Template names and paths
Context variables passed to templates
Render count statistics

Enable in config:

config = LitestarDebugToolbarConfig(
    extra_panels=["debug_toolbar.core.panels.templates.TemplatesPanel"],
)

Profiling Panel¶

ID: ProfilingPanel

Profiling Panel

Request profiling with flame graph visualization:

cProfile-based request profiling
Optional pyinstrument support
Interactive flame graph generation (speedscope format)
Function call statistics
Cumulative and per-call timing

Flame Graph Support:

The profiling panel generates flame graphs in speedscope format. Access them via:

/_debug_toolbar/api/flamegraph/{request_id}

Download and visualize at speedscope.app.

Enable in config:

config = LitestarDebugToolbarConfig(
    extra_panels=["debug_toolbar.core.panels.profiling.ProfilingPanel"],
)

Alerts Panel¶

ID: AlertsPanel

Alerts Panel

Proactive issue detection panel that automatically identifies:

Security Issues:

Missing security headers (CSP, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, etc.)
Insecure cookies (missing Secure, HttpOnly, SameSite flags)
CSRF protection issues on state-changing requests
Debug mode enabled in production

Performance Issues:

Large response sizes (warning at 1MB, critical at 5MB)
Slow SQL queries (warning at 100ms, critical at 500ms)

Database Issues:

N+1 query pattern detection (warning at 3+ similar queries, critical at 10+)
Optimization suggestions with eager loading recommendations

Each alert includes:

Severity level (info, warning, critical)
Category (security, performance, database, configuration)
Actionable description

Enable in config:

config = LitestarDebugToolbarConfig(
    extra_panels=["debug_toolbar.core.panels.alerts.AlertsPanel"],
)

Memory Panel¶

ID: MemoryPanel

Memory Panel

Memory profiling and allocation tracking:

Backends:

tracemalloc: Python’s built-in memory tracer (default)
memray: Advanced memory profiler (requires pip install memray)
auto: Automatically selects the best available backend

Features:

Memory allocation tracking per request
Top allocations by size
Memory snapshots comparison
Peak memory usage
Allocation source locations (file:line)

Enable in config:

config = LitestarDebugToolbarConfig(
    extra_panels=["debug_toolbar.core.panels.memory.MemoryPanel"],
    memory_backend="auto",  # "tracemalloc", "memray", or "auto"
)

Cache Panel¶

ID: CachePanel

Redis and memcached operation tracking:

Cache hits and misses
Operation types (GET, SET, DELETE, etc.)
Operation timing
Key information
Backend breakdown

Enable in config:

config = LitestarDebugToolbarConfig(
    extra_panels=["debug_toolbar.core.panels.cache.CachePanel"],
)

Litestar-Specific Panels¶

Routes Panel¶

ID: RoutesPanel

Litestar-specific panel showing:

All registered routes
HTTP methods
Handler names
Current matched route

Automatically added for Litestar applications.

Events Panel¶

ID: EventsPanel

Events Panel

Litestar-specific panel showing lifecycle events and handlers:

Lifecycle hooks: on_startup, on_shutdown handlers
Request hooks: before_request, after_request, after_response handlers
Exception handlers: Registered exception handlers with their exception types
Handler function details (name, module, file location, line number)
Total hook count and execution statistics

This panel helps you understand:

What lifecycle hooks are registered in your application
Which exception handlers are configured
The source location of each handler for easy debugging

Automatically added for Litestar applications.

WebSocket Panel¶

ID: WebSocketPanel

WebSocket Panel

Real-time WebSocket connection tracking and message inspection:

Connection Tracking:

Active and closed connections with lifecycle states
Connection path, query string, and headers
Connection duration and close codes/reasons
Bytes sent/received per connection

Message Inspection:

Bidirectional message logging (sent/received)
Message content preview with expandable full content
Message size and timestamp
Support for text and binary messages

Live Updates:

Real-time updates via /_debug_toolbar/ws/live WebSocket endpoint
Click “Go Live” to stream connection and message events
Statistics update in real-time as WebSocket activity occurs

Configuration:

config = LitestarDebugToolbarConfig(
    websocket_tracking_enabled=True,           # Enable WebSocket tracking
    websocket_max_connections=50,              # Max connections to track
    websocket_max_messages_per_connection=100, # Max messages per connection
    websocket_max_message_size=10240,          # Max message size (bytes)
    websocket_connection_ttl=3600,             # TTL for closed connections
)

Automatically added when WebSocket handlers are detected in your application.

Extra Panels¶

SQLAlchemy Panel¶

ID: SQLAlchemyPanel

SQLAlchemy Panel

Requires debug-toolbar[advanced-alchemy]:

Query Tracking:

Query count and total time
Individual query details with SQL and parameters
Duplicate query detection
Slow query highlighting (configurable threshold)

N+1 Query Detection:

Automatic detection of N+1 query patterns
Groups similar queries by normalized SQL pattern and origin
Shows call stack for each N+1 group
Provides fix suggestions (eager loading, batching)
Badges on affected queries (N+1, SLOW, DUP)

EXPLAIN Support:

Execute EXPLAIN on any query
Supports PostgreSQL, SQLite, MySQL, MariaDB
View query execution plans

Enable in config:

config = LitestarDebugToolbarConfig(
    extra_panels=["debug_toolbar.extras.advanced_alchemy.SQLAlchemyPanel"],
)

Recommended Configuration¶

For comprehensive debugging, enable all panels:

from debug_toolbar.litestar import DebugToolbarPlugin, LitestarDebugToolbarConfig

config = LitestarDebugToolbarConfig(
    enabled=True,
    extra_panels=[
        "debug_toolbar.extras.advanced_alchemy.SQLAlchemyPanel",  # If using SQLAlchemy
        "debug_toolbar.core.panels.headers.HeadersPanel",
        "debug_toolbar.core.panels.settings.SettingsPanel",
        "debug_toolbar.core.panels.templates.TemplatesPanel",
        "debug_toolbar.core.panels.profiling.ProfilingPanel",
        "debug_toolbar.core.panels.alerts.AlertsPanel",
        "debug_toolbar.core.panels.memory.MemoryPanel",
        "debug_toolbar.core.panels.cache.CachePanel",
    ],
)

app = Litestar(
    route_handlers=[...],
    plugins=[DebugToolbarPlugin(config)],
)