Polypane 30: Playgrounds, Side Panel extension API, updated video recording and Chromium 152

Polypane 30 ships on Chromium 152 and introduces Playgrounds, letting developers open any local directory as a real HTTPS URL with live reloading, SPA fallback, directory listings, and Portal sharing across devices. The release also adds Side Panel and tabCapture extension API support, a rewritten video recording engine with sound and lower memory use, and major Network panel upgrades (per-origin/all-request toggle, filtering, initiator highlighting). Elements, Console, Outline, Meta, and Peek panels get numerous accessibility, CSS, and usability improvements, plus new emulation features like text-scale and svh overlays, new device previews, project-specific default tabs, and text-selection syncing across panes and Portal-connected browsers.

#ui-design

#accessibility

#chromium

#polypane

Aug 19•26m read time•From polypane.app

Table of contents

Polypane Playgrounds Network panel improvements Video recording improvements Extension side panel API Extension tabCapture APIs Elements panel improvements Default inspection tools Peek improvements Emulation improvements Meta panel improvements Console panel improvements Accessibility display improvements Outline panel improvements Panes Project improvements Syncing improvements Area screenshot improvements Smaller improvements Chromium 152 Get Polypane 30 Polypane 30 Changelog

Questions this post answers

What is Polypane Playgrounds and how does it let me test a local site over HTTPS?

Playgrounds is a Polypane 30 feature that lets you select any local directory and open it as a real URL over HTTPS, giving access to security-restricted APIs, cookies, and localStorage without setting up a local server, managing ports, or dealing with self-signed certificates. It supports live reloading, SPA fallback for client-side routing, directory listings, and syncing via Polypane Portal to other browsers and devices. daily.dev surfaces browser tooling updates like this for developers testing sites locally.

What browser engine version does Polypane 30 use?

Polypane 30 is built on Chromium 152, which brings the underlying rendering engine, DevTools protocol support, and experimental web platform features available in that Chromium release to the browser's multi-viewport testing environment. Developers tracking Chromium version bumps across browsers can follow releases like this on daily.dev.

How do I test the new CSS text-scale meta tag for OS-level font scaling?

Set the meta tag name="text-scale" content="scale" to opt in to OS-level text scaling, so a 200% OS text scale setting (like on Android) makes the site's default 16px font render at 32px instead of staying fixed; the default "legacy" value ignores OS scaling. Polypane 30's emulation panel lets you test this by adjusting OS text scale from 100% to between 85% and 200%. daily.dev helps accessibility-minded developers keep up with new CSS scaling features like this one.