Debug Your App with Developer Menu Tools

Open Beta Documentation Amazon offers this technical documentation as part of a pre-release, open beta. The features described might change as Amazon receives feedback and iterates on the features. For the most current feature information, see the Release Notes.

The in-app developer menu provides access to debugging tools, including an element inspector and performance monitor.

Set up port forwarding

To access the developer menu debugging tools of your app, you first need to connect your app to the Metro bundler. To connect your app to the Metro bundler, you must set up port forwarding.

To set up port forwarding

Open a command prompt, and then run the following command, depending on your device.

Vega Virtual Device:

Copied to clipboard.

  kepler virtual-device start

  kepler device start-port-forwarding --device <DEVICE_NAME> -p <PORT> --forward false

Fire TV Stick:

Copied to clipboard.

 vda reverse tcp:8081 tcp:8081 && vda reverse tcp:8097 tcp:8097

Start the Metro bundler

Before you start your app by using the Vega Virtual Device or a Fire TV Stick, start the Metro bundler.

To start the Metro bundler

Open a command prompt, and then run the following command.

Copied to clipboard.
```
 npm start
```

Note: The npm start command is an alias for the node node_modules/react-native/local-cli/cli.js start command.

Start your app

After you start the Metro bundler, you can start your app.

To start your app

Follow the instructions to start your app in either the Vega Virtual Device or Fire TV Stick.

Debug your app

After you have your app running in either the Vega Virtual Device or Fire TV Stick, you can debug your app.

To debug your app

In the Metro bundler terminal window, click d to open the developer menu in your running app.
Choose a debugging option:

Reload – reloads the app.
Open Debugger – opens the Flipper debugger (React Native 0.72) or Chrome DevTools (React Native 0.73 or later). You can also access the debugger using Chrome's remote debugger.
Show Element Inspector – displays the React's Native element inspector.
Disable Fast Refresh – disables hot-reloading of the app after code changes.
Configure Bundler – configures the address where the JavaScript bundle is available.
Show Perf Monitor – opens the performance monitor.

Troubleshooting app debugging

If the Metro bundler isn't connecting to your app, make sure you have set up port forwarding for a Fire TV Stick by using the vda reverse command or for the Vega Virtual Device by using the ssh sim -R command.
If you use a cloud environment, make sure you use the following SSH configuration options:
```
  LocalForward 8081 127.0.0.1:8081
  LocalForward 8097 127.0.0.1:8097
```

Additional resources

React Native basic debugging docs

Last updated: Sep 30, 2025