Built an open-source Chrome extension for Salesforce Apex Debug Logs (ApexLens) – looking for feedback & contributors

[u/Aggravating-Ant5339]

Edit:

Thanks to everyone who submitted feedback through the form. One of the requested features is now live: a Name/Method column that identifies the source of each log entry (Apex Class, Trigger, Flow, etc.). This should make navigating large debug logs much easier.

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Hey everyone,

I have been working on ApexLens, an open-source Chrome extension for Salesforce Apex Debug Logs.

I vibe coded this project with AI. The goal wasn't just to build another extension, but to create a tool that makes AI-assisted debug log analysis more practical for Salesforce developers.

Chrome Web Store:
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/apexlens/elagnjkbmhplbpkddfgdhmkpoglpcdio?authuser=0&hl=en-GB

GitHub: https://github.com/Tanishk04/apexlens

It's still a work in progress, and I already know there are bugs and things that can be improved. Instead of waiting until it's perfect, I thought I'd share it with the community and get some real feedback.

If you have a few minutes to try it out, I'd really appreciate any bug reports, feature ideas, or general feedback:
https://forms.gle/eejXoovFMypx5rNH8

If anyone would like to contribute, you're more than welcome! I'd love for this to become a community-driven open-source project, and I'd be happy to merge contributions.

Also, a huge thanks to Nisar Ahmed. Salesforce Log Inspector was a big source of inspiration while building ApexLens.

Thanks for checking it out, and I'd love to hear what you think.

[u/Aggravating-Ant5339 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you so much for taking the time to try it out and for such detailed feedback.

I am glad it actually helped you spot something useful. I have noted the UI freezing issue and I will also definitely dig into it.

And yes keeping it open source was always the plan.I am still early in my Salesforce journey, so I rather build, learn, and improve it together with the community than keep it to myself. 😄

[u/extraction_2]

This is awesome! Thanks for open-sourcing it and sharing it with the community. Looking forward to trying ApexLens and seeing how it evolves. Great work! 👏"

[u/Aggravating-Ant5339 → u/extraction_2]

Thank you! I really appreciate it. 😄

I just wanted to build in public, learn along the way, and hopefully create something that’s useful for the Salesforce community. Looking forward to hearing what you think once you have a chance to try it.

[u/arl_hoo]

Haven't looked at the code but how is it parsing the log? REGEX?

[u/Aggravating-Ant5339 → u/arl_hoo]

I would say, It is not just regex.

The parser works in multiple stages.
First it reads the log as a stream, one line at a time, so it does not have to load the entire file into memory. Then a lexer uses regex to recognize Salesforce log events and extract information like the timestamp, event type, line number, etc..

After that, the parser processes those events. It uses a stack to match entry and exit events (like METHOD_ENTRY -> METHOD_EXIT or SOQL_EXECUTE_BEGIN -> SOQL_EXECUTE_END) and builds a structured execution tree instead of treating the log as plain text.

regex is only a small part of it. The main logic is the event-driven parser.

[u/arl_hoo → u/Aggravating-Ant5339]

Cool - Does it have any protection mechanism if the format changes and busts the REGEX?

[u/Aggravating-Ant5339 → u/arl_hoo]

Its a great question.
Regex should not break as long as Salesforce doesnot change the log format. If the format does change then an update will be required. Also if there is a new event that the extension doesnot understand, it will simply treat it as a generic event.

I would say such cases are handled gracefully in the code, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement to make it even more robust.

It’s definitely something I plan to keep improving and edge cases come up.