Record toggle (pause and resume)
The record toggle controls live capture. While recording, new hits stream into the panel. When you pause it, the panel stops adding rows so the view holds still, but status codes on the rows you already have keep updating as requests finish.
Why it matters
A busy page fires dozens of hits every second. On a shopping site or news platform, that becomes noise. You need to freeze the panel mid-flow so you can read a specific hit without new rows scrolling it off screen. Pausing capture lets you do that without clearing your data.
How it works
The record toggle is a button with a red or grey dot indicator. Red means recording is active; new hits appear as they fire. Click the toggle and the dot goes grey. The panel stops accepting new hits, but it does not wipe what is already there. Status codes on hits already in the log keep updating as those requests complete. When you resume, new hits start flowing in again.
Pausing is local to your browser. It does not affect the page or any network requests. Tags still fire; Scalpel Tags just stops displaying them. This is useful for reading slow hits or waiting for all responses to arrive before scrolling back.
What does not matter
Pausing does not stop the browser from making requests. Your page still fires tags normally. You are only pausing the Scalpel Tags view, not the tags themselves. Clearing the log is different from pausing; clearing removes all data, while pausing just stops adding new rows.
Code example
No code example applies. The record toggle is a UI control, not a programmatic feature.
How Scalpel Tags shows it
The record button is in the DevTools panel toolbar, next to the filter box. It shows a red dot when recording, grey when paused. Click it to toggle. The keyboard shortcut (customisable at chrome://extensions/shortcuts) can also toggle preserve log without opening the panel, which pairs well with pausing when you want to hold steady during a checkout or a multi-step flow.