Installation & Setup

Inspector Lab installs in one click from the Chrome Web Store on desktop Chrome, Chromium browsers, and Orion — including iPadOS and iOS. Installing from source remains available for development and for sideloading a local build.

Inspector Lab is live on the Chrome Web Store. This is the primary install path on every supported browser, including Orion on iPad and iPhone — one click, no build step, automatic updates.

Install from the Chrome Web Store

Open the listing

Go to Inspector Lab - DevTools on the Chrome Web Store. On iPad or iPhone, follow Orion on iPadOS and iOS below instead.

Add the extension

Click Add to Chrome (Orion shows its own install prompt) and confirm. The extension appears in your toolbar, ready to use. Store installs update automatically as new versions are published.

That is the whole install for desktop. Everything below covers Orion on iOS/iPadOS, macOS, and building from source — only needed for sideloading or development.

Orion on iPadOS and iOS

Orion by Kagi is the only iPad browser that runs Chrome extensions and is free for iPhone and iPad. Install Orion first if you have not already.

Step 1 — Enable Chrome extensions (once)

Open the Extensions screen

Tap the three dots (⋯) in the toolbar and choose Extensions.

Turn on Chrome extensions

Turn on Chrome extensions.

Step 2 — Install Inspector Lab from the store

Open the Extensions screen

Tap ⋯ → Extensions (you are already there if you just enabled Chrome extensions).

Open the Web Store

Tap the + button in the bottom right, then choose Install from the Chrome Web Store.

Install Inspector Lab

Search for Inspector Lab - DevTools or open the listing directly and confirm. It appears in your extensions list.

Orion may warn about compatibility during install — the warning is informational and expected. The extension is built for iOS's reduced API surface and works as designed.

Step 3 — Use the inspector

Enable the extension

Check that Inspector Lab - DevTools is enabled in the Extensions list.

Open a website

Navigate to any normal website (http:// or https://).

Launch the inspector

Tap the extension icon in the toolbar, then tap Inspector Lab - DevTools, then tap Open page inspector.

Grant site access

Allow site access when Orion asks. The Cookies panel stays empty without it, and console capture from page load also needs it.

The inspector docks to the bottom of the page. Drag the toolbar to tear it off into a floating window, or use the dock buttons to pin it to another edge. It survives page reloads until you close it with the X.

What to expect on iOS and iPadOS

Kagi documents iOS and iPadOS extension support as beta with a reduced API surface, because Apple caps what any iOS browser may expose. Inspector Lab is built for that: wherever the extension background cannot be reached, panels fall back to in-page sources instead of going dark, and each one says on screen which source it is using.

Verified on a real iPad:

Panel	Status	Notes
Elements	Works	Fully in-page; no extension APIs needed.
Console	Works	Captures logs and evaluates expressions. Falls back to in-page scripts when the extension does not answer. Corrects iOS Smart Punctuation automatically — type `console.log("log")` and the keyboard's curly quotes and em-dashes are fixed if they blocked parsing. Sites whose Content Security Policy forbids inline scripts or `eval` block the fallback — the error says so.
Sources	Works	Fully in-page; no extension APIs needed.
Cookies	Works	Lists, adds, edits, and deletes cookies. Falls back to `document.cookie` when extension is unreachable; cannot see HttpOnly cookies in fallback mode.
Storage	Works	Fully in-page; no extension APIs needed.
Network	Partial	Captures fetch/XHR live with headers and bodies. Static resources (documents, stylesheets, images, fonts) come from the Performance timeline without header details, because `chrome.webRequest` is not available on iOS.

If a panel reports a specific error instead of data, that message is the ground truth — it names the API or policy that refused, rather than a generic connection failure.

Orion on macOS

Orion on macOS installs Chrome Web Store extensions directly and exposes the fuller desktop API surface. Open the Chrome Web Store listing in Orion and install. For the current extension settings menu (which moves between Orion releases), see Kagi's extension documentation.

Build and sideload from source

Clone the repository and build the unpacked extension:

Clone and install

git clone git@github.com:luangjokaj/inspector-lab.git
cd inspector-lab
pnpm install

Build the extension

pnpm build

This writes the unpacked extension to apps/extension/build/chrome-mv3-prod/. That folder is the extension — manifest.json sits at its top level.

(iPad only) Create a zip package

If you are installing on iPad or iPhone, create a 1.2 MB zip to transfer:

pnpm package

This generates apps/extension/build/chrome-mv3-prod.zip.

Desktop Chrome, Edge, Brave, and Chromium (local build)

Once you have built the extension:

Open the extensions page

Navigate to chrome://extensions in your browser.

Enable Developer mode

Toggle Developer mode in the top right corner.

Load the unpacked extension

Click Load unpacked and select apps/extension/build/chrome-mv3-prod.

The extension is now installed and ready to use. For development, run pnpm dev instead of pnpm build — this writes to apps/extension/build/chrome-mv3-dev and reloads as you edit. Load that folder the same way.

Orion on iPadOS and iOS (sideloaded build)

Store installs are strongly recommended — they update automatically. Sideload only when testing unreleased changes. Sideloaded extensions never auto-update.

Orion's file installer only lists folders that are already in its own Extensions directory, so the folder must be moved there before you open Orion's extension screen.

Get the folder onto the iPad

Transfer the zip to iPad

Move chrome-mv3-prod.zip to your iPad via AirDrop, iCloud Drive, or browser download. It normally lands in the Downloads folder in the Files app.

Uncompress the zip

Open the Files app, find the zip, long-press it, and tap Uncompress. You get a folder named chrome-mv3-prod.

Navigate to Orion's Extensions folder

In Files, go to Browse → On My iPad → Orion → Extensions.

If no Orion folder exists, open the Orion app once — it creates the folder on first launch — then look again. Orion's own file picker calls this location On This iPad instead of On My iPad, but it is the same place.

Move the folder into Extensions

Long-press the chrome-mv3-prod folder, tap Move, and pick Orion/Extensions. Dragging it across in Split View also works.

At this point, On My iPad → Orion → Extensions → chrome-mv3-prod exists and contains manifest.json. The extension is not yet installed in Orion.

Install in Orion

Open Orion and access extensions

Open Orion, tap the three dots (⋯) in the toolbar, then tap Extensions.

Open the file picker

Tap the + button in the bottom right and choose Install from File.

Select the folder

The folder picker opens. Select the chrome-mv3-prod folder you moved in the previous step — pick the folder itself, not a file inside it.

Confirm installation

Confirm. Orion installs it, and Inspector Lab - DevTools appears in the extensions list.

Updating a sideloaded build

Sideloaded extensions never auto-update. To move to a newer build:

Delete the old chrome-mv3-prod folder from On My iPad → Orion → Extensions.
Drop the new one in its place using the steps above.
Install it again using the + → Install from File flow.

Removing the old folder first matters — two folders with the same manifest name make the picker ambiguous.

Troubleshooting

The picker does not show my folder.

I moved the zip instead of the folder.

I picked a file and it failed.

No Orion folder in Files.

Nothing happens when I tap Open page inspector.

The Cookies panel is empty.

Next steps

Once the extension is installed and running, explore its capabilities:

Features & Capabilities

Learn what each panel does and how to use it.

Elements Panel

Start inspecting and editing the DOM.