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charliedowler merged 1 commit into from
Mar 30, 2026
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docs: add HAR file generation guide #520

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96 changes: 96 additions & 0 deletions contact/generating-har-file.mdx
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---
title: "Generating a HAR file"
description: "How to capture a HAR file from your browser to help the Lightdash support team troubleshoot issues"
---

When troubleshooting issues with Lightdash, our support team may ask you to provide a **HAR (HTTP Archive) file**. A HAR file records all network requests between your browser and Lightdash, helping us diagnose loading failures, slow queries, API errors, and other issues.

## Before you start

<Warning>
HAR files contain sensitive data including **cookies, session tokens, and the content of pages you visited** during the recording. Anyone with access to a HAR file could use this information to impersonate your session.

**Before sharing a HAR file:**
- Only record the minimum steps needed to reproduce the issue
- Do not share HAR files publicly (e.g. in GitHub issues) — send them directly to the support team
- If possible, use [Cloudflare's HAR sanitizer](https://har-sanitizer.pages.dev/) to strip cookies and authorization headers before sharing
</Warning>

## Generating a HAR file

Select your browser below for step-by-step instructions.

<Tabs>
<Tab title="Chrome">
1. Open the page in Lightdash where you're experiencing the issue
2. Open Chrome DevTools: press `F12`, or `Cmd + Option + I` (Mac) / `Ctrl + Shift + I` (Windows/Linux)
3. Click the **Network** tab
4. Make sure the record button (top-left circle) is **red** — this means recording is active
5. Check the **Preserve log** checkbox to keep requests across page navigations
6. Click the **clear** button (circle with a line through it) to remove any existing logs
7. Reproduce the issue you're troubleshooting
8. Right-click anywhere in the network request list and select **Save all as HAR with Content**
9. Save the file to your computer

<Tip>
To also capture console errors: click the **Console** tab in DevTools, right-click in the console output, and select **Save as...** to download the console log.
</Tip>
</Tab>

<Tab title="Firefox">
1. Open the page in Lightdash where you're experiencing the issue
2. Open Developer Tools: press `F12`, or `Cmd + Option + I` (Mac) / `Ctrl + Shift + I` (Windows/Linux)
3. Click the **Network** tab
4. Reproduce the issue you're troubleshooting
5. Right-click any request in the network list and select **Save All As HAR**
6. Save the file to your computer

<Tip>
To also capture console errors: click the **Console** tab in Developer Tools and take a screenshot of any errors shown.
</Tip>
</Tab>

<Tab title="Safari">
1. Enable the developer tools if you haven't already: go to **Safari > Settings > Advanced** and check **Show features for web developers**
2. Open the page in Lightdash where you're experiencing the issue
3. Open Web Inspector: press `Cmd + Option + I`, or go to **Develop > Show Web Inspector**
4. Click the **Network** tab
5. Make sure **Preserve Log** is checked (click the filter icon in the toolbar if needed)
6. Reproduce the issue you're troubleshooting
7. Click **Export** in the top-right of the Network tab to save the HAR file

<Tip>
To also capture console errors: click the **Console** tab in Web Inspector and take a screenshot of any errors shown.
</Tip>
</Tab>

<Tab title="Microsoft Edge">
1. Open the page in Lightdash where you're experiencing the issue
2. Open Developer Tools: press `F12`, or `Ctrl + Shift + I`
3. Click the **Network** tab
4. Make sure the record button is active (red circle)
5. Check the **Preserve log** checkbox
6. Click the **clear** button to remove any existing logs
7. Reproduce the issue you're troubleshooting
8. Click the **Export HAR** button (down arrow icon) in the Network tab toolbar
9. Save the file to your computer

<Tip>
To also capture console errors: click the **Console** tab in Developer Tools, right-click in the console output, and select **Save as...** to download the console log.
</Tip>
</Tab>
</Tabs>

## Sending the HAR file to Lightdash support

1. **Sanitize** the file using [Cloudflare's HAR sanitizer](https://har-sanitizer.pages.dev/) to remove sensitive headers and cookies
2. **Compress** the file — HAR files can be large, so zip the file before sending (right-click the file and select **Compress** on Mac or **Send to > Compressed folder** on Windows)
3. **Send** the file to [support@lightdash.com](mailto:support@lightdash.com) with a description of the issue, including:
- What you were trying to do
- What you expected to happen
- What actually happened
- The URL of the Lightdash page where the issue occurred

<Note>
If the compressed HAR file is too large for email (over 25 MB), let the support team know and they'll provide an alternative upload method.
</Note>
3 changes: 2 additions & 1 deletion docs.json
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"group": "Contact",
"pages": [
"contact/faqs",
"contact/contact-info"
"contact/contact-info",
"contact/generating-har-file"
]
}
]
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