**Dev Tools** is a development environment that lets you set up your OpenSearch Dashboards environment, run queries, explore data, and debug problems. You can use the Dev Tools console to:
- **Set up your OpenSearch Dashboards environment.** For example, you can use the console to configure authentication settings for your OpenSearch Dashboards instance.
- **[Run queries to explore your data]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/dashboards/dev-tools/run-queries/).** For example, you can use the console to tune your queries for relevance.
- **Debug problems with your queries.** For example, if your query is not returning the results you expect, you can use the console to identify the problem.
- **Learn about the APIs in OpenSearch.** For example, you can use the API reference documentation linked in the console to look up the syntax for different API calls (select the question circle icon ({::nomarkdown}<imgsrc="{{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/images/icons/question-circle.png"class="inline-icon"alt="question circle icon"/>{:/})).
- **Develop custom visualizations.** For example, you can use the console to create [Vega visualizations]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/dashboards/visualize/viz-index/#vega).
- **Customize the appearance and behavior of dashboards.** For example, you can use the console to customize dashboard visualization colors or to add new filters.
To access the console, go to the OpenSearch Dashboards main menu and select **Management** > **Dev Tools**. An example is shown in the following image.
