HAR Viewer / Sanitizer: complete usage guide
Inspect browser HAR exports locally and redact headers, cookies, query strings, bodies, and response content before sharing. This guide provides practical usage notes, troubleshooting checks, and safe handling recommendations.
What this tool does
HAR Viewer / Sanitizer inspects, compares, or explains technical inputs so teams can diagnose issues faster.
It surfaces actionable findings for debugging, triage, and cross-team communication.
It keeps analysis evidence in one place to reduce context switching during incident response.
Typical use cases
- Analyze HAR Viewer / Sanitizer input and review findings before escalating incidents.
- Compare outputs across environments to isolate regressions quickly.
- Prepare concise diagnostic artifacts for runbooks and support handoff.
- Use structured analysis notes in postmortems and remediation planning.
Input examples
Diagnostic input
Paste logs, payloads, or config snippets relevant to the issue.
Comparison input
Provide baseline and current samples to inspect differences.
Output examples
Analysis output
Capture key findings and risk signals from the inspected input.
Investigation note
Document assumptions, anomalies, and next validation steps.
Common errors and fixes
Input sample is incomplete
Start with minimal reproducible evidence, then expand scope.
False conclusions from noisy data
Compare against clean baseline samples before deciding.
Findings are not actionable
Translate output into concrete next checks and ownership notes.
Security and privacy notes
- Processing is local to your browser session and does not require server-side submission.
- Redact tokens, secrets, and personal data before sharing output externally.
- Clear clipboard history on shared devices after copying sensitive output.
Step-by-step workflow
- Feed HAR Viewer / Sanitizer the smallest reproducible sample you can collect from the real issue.
- Review the first findings and separate confirmed signals from assumptions or environment-specific noise.
- Compare a clean baseline sample against the problematic input when you need to isolate regressions.
- Keep one redacted output snapshot with the key findings for tickets, runbooks, or incident handoff.
Quality checklist before sharing output
- Confirm HAR Viewer / Sanitizer findings still reproduce with the same input and assumptions.
- Check that the sample includes enough surrounding context to support the conclusion you are drawing.
- Translate notable findings into concrete next checks, ownership, or remediation notes.
- Redact private hosts, tokens, certificates, or customer identifiers before sharing analysis output.
Operational notes
HAR Viewer / Sanitizer is most effective when it produces a focused, reproducible evidence bundle that can be handed to the next engineer without extra cleanup.
Frequently asked questions
How should I use HAR Viewer / Sanitizer during incidents?
Use it to gather consistent evidence before diving into deeper system-level debugging.
Can analysis output be shared directly?
Yes, but redact sensitive fields before posting outside trusted channels.
Does this replace observability tooling?
No. It complements logs and APM by accelerating focused local analysis.
