Quick Start

This tutorial walks you through setting up the debug proxy and connecting VS Code to WinCC Unified.

Before starting, make sure the WinCC debugger is enabled and a browser with the runtime is open. See WinCC Setup for the full setup.

Step by step

Create a project folder

Create an empty folder and place wincc-unified-debug-proxy.exe inside it.

Open in VS Code

Open the folder in VS Code and launch a terminal (Ctrl+`).

Generate VS Code launch.json

The proxy can automatically create a launch.json with the correct configuration:

./wincc-unified-debug-proxy.exe init

This creates .vscode/launch.json with three debug configurations:

WinCC:Dynamics - for Dynamics scripts (port 9230)
WinCC:Events - for Events scripts (port 9231)
WinCC:All - both at the same time

If a launch.json already exists, the tool prints the configuration so you can merge it manually.

Start the proxy

Start the proxy with default settings (WinCC on localhost):

./wincc-unified-debug-proxy.exe run

For a remote WinCC machine, specify the IP address:

./wincc-unified-debug-proxy.exe run -t 192.168.1.100

See Remote Debugging for the full remote setup.

You'll see output like:

[START] Starting WinCC Debug Proxy...
[OK] Dynamics proxy ready on port 9230
[OK] Events proxy ready on port 9231
[READY] WinCC Debug Proxy is running!

Start the VS Code debugger

Open VS Code in your project
Go to Run and Debug (Ctrl+Shift+D)
Select WinCC:Dynamics, WinCC:Events, or WinCC:All
Click Start Debugging (F5)

VS Code connects to the proxy, which relays traffic to WinCC.

Debug your scripts

Navigate to the screen in WinCC Unified
Open a loaded script and set breakpoints
VS Code automatically stops at your breakpoints
When screens reload, VS Code reconnects automatically

The Loaded Scripts section in the sidebar doesn't always show all scripts. Use the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and run Debug: Open Loaded Script... to find and open any loaded script.

Make sure the WinCC runtime is running with debugging enabled and a screen is open in the browser before starting the proxy. You can verify this by opening http://localhost:9222/json - it should return a non-empty JSON array. Keep only one screen open to avoid multiple debug sessions.

What's next?

CLI Options - all available parameters
VS Code Setup - launch.json in detail
Remote Debugging - debug on a different machine

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