diff --git a/capi/Cargo.toml b/capi/Cargo.toml
index 6f55727a..a895927f 100644
--- a/capi/Cargo.toml
+++ b/capi/Cargo.toml
@@ -8,10 +8,11 @@ edition = "2018"
 livesplit-core = { path = "..", default-features = false, features = ["std"] }
 serde_json = "1.0.8"
 time = { version = "0.3.4" }
+console_error_panic_hook = { version = "0.1.7", optional = true }
 
 [features]
 default = ["image-shrinking"]
 image-shrinking = ["livesplit-core/image-shrinking"]
 software-rendering = ["livesplit-core/software-rendering"]
-wasm-web = ["livesplit-core/wasm-web"]
+wasm-web = ["livesplit-core/wasm-web", "console_error_panic_hook"]
 auto-splitting = ["livesplit-core/auto-splitting"]
diff --git a/capi/src/lib.rs b/capi/src/lib.rs
index e3437728..1cf330f4 100644
--- a/capi/src/lib.rs
+++ b/capi/src/lib.rs
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ use std::{
     ptr,
 };
 
+extern crate console_error_panic_hook;
+
 pub mod analysis;
 pub mod auto_splitting_runtime;
 pub mod atomic_date_time;
@@ -193,3 +195,12 @@ pub extern "C" fn dealloc(ptr: *mut u8, cap: usize) {
 pub extern "C" fn get_buf_len() -> usize {
     OUTPUT_VEC.with(|v| v.borrow().len() - 1)
 }
+
+
+/// sets the console error panic hook
+/// this means that when rust panics in wasm, the panic message will be sent to js console
+#[cfg(feature = "wasm-web")]
+#[no_mangle]
+pub extern "C" fn initialize_debugging() {
+    console_error_panic_hook::set_once();
+}
\ No newline at end of file