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For years I’ve been juggling <code>var_dump()</code>, Xdebug setups, and paying for tools like Spatie Ray ($49/year) just to see what my PHP app is doing. None of it felt right — either it broke the page, needed heavy IDE integration, or cost money for something that should be free.
So I built DebugPHP.
<hr>
<h2>What it does</h2>
DebugPHP streams your debug output to a browser-based dashboard in real-time via Server-Sent Events. No page reloads. No desktop apps. No config hell. Just call <code>Debug::send()</code> and watch it appear.
<pre><code>use DebugPHP\Debug;

Debug::init(&#x27;your-session-token&#x27;);

Debug::send(&#x27;User created!&#x27;);
Debug::send($user, &#x27;User&#x27;)-&gt;color(&#x27;blue&#x27;);
Debug::send($exception, &#x27;Error&#x27;)-&gt;color(&#x27;red&#x27;);
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h2>Current features</h2>
Labels &amp; Colors — categorize your entries visually:
<pre><code>Debug::send($query, &#x27;SQL&#x27;)-&gt;color(&#x27;blue&#x27;);
Debug::send($error, &#x27;Error&#x27;)-&gt;color(&#x27;red&#x27;);
</code></pre>
Timers — measure performance inline:
<pre><code>Debug::startTimer(&#x27;db-query&#x27;);
$results = $db-&gt;query(&#x27;SELECT * FROM users&#x27;);
Debug::stopTimer(&#x27;db-query&#x27;);
// → Dashboard shows: &quot;db-query: 23.4ms&quot;
</code></pre>
Toolbar Metrics — live key-value chips in the topbar, perfect for request-level data:
<pre><code>Debug::metric(&#x27;Template&#x27;, &#x27;home.php&#x27;);
Debug::metric(&#x27;Memory&#x27;, memory_get_usage(true) / 1024 / 1024 . &#x27;MB&#x27;);
</code></pre>
Metrics auto-disappear from the toolbar when you remove them from your code — no stale data.
Tables — render arrays as proper tables:
<pre><code>Debug::table([
 [&#x27;name&#x27; =&gt; &#x27;Leon&#x27;, &#x27;role&#x27; =&gt; &#x27;Developer&#x27;],
 [&#x27;name&#x27; =&gt; &#x27;Sarah&#x27;, &#x27;role&#x27; =&gt; &#x27;Designer&#x27;],
]);
</code></pre>
Pause / Resume / Clear — full control without touching your app.
<hr>
<h2>Self-hostable</h2>
Don’t want your debug data leaving your machine? The server component is fully open source too:
<pre><code>git clone https://github.com/CallMeLeon167/debugphp-server.git
cd debugphp-server
composer install
# Open /setup/ in the browser — the wizard does the rest
</code></pre>
Then just point the client at your own server:
<pre><code>Debug::init(&#x27;your-token&#x27;, [
 &#x27;host&#x27; =&gt; &#x27;http://localhost:8080&#x27;,
]);
</code></pre>
<hr>
<h2>Technical details (for those who care)</h2>
<ul>
<li>PHP 8.1+ required, zero runtime dependencies (just <code>ext-curl</code>)</li>
<li>PHPStan Level 10 — the strictest static analysis level, fully passing</li>
<li>SSE-based push architecture — no WebSocket server needed, works on any standard Apache/nginx setup</li>
<li>Data is serialized with PHP’s native <code>serialize()</code> + base64 for full type fidelity (objects, exceptions, nested structures all work)</li>
<li>Session tokens tie your app to your dashboard tab — multiple sessions work in parallel</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<h2>Installation</h2>
<pre><code>composer require callmeleon167/debugphp --dev
</code></pre>
Requires PHP 8.1+ and <code>ext-curl</code>. That’s it.
<hr>
<h2>Status</h2>
Currently in pre-release — the core is working and the dashboard is functional, but I’m still polishing things before the public launch on GitHub.
If this sounds useful to you: feel free to open issues or drop feedback here. I’m especially curious whether the self-hosted setup flow works smoothly on different environments.
<hr>
Built by a PHP dev, for PHP devs. MIT licensed.

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DebugPHP is a free, open-source PHP debugging tool that streams debug output to a browser-based dashboard in real-time using Server-Sent Events — no page reloads, no IDE integration, no desktop apps required. It offers a simple API via `Debug::send()` with support for labels, colors, inline timers, toolbar metrics, and array tables. The server component is fully self-hostable, requires PHP 8.1+ with only `ext-curl`, passes PHPStan Level 10 static analysis, and is installable via Composer. It positions itself as a free alternative to tools like Spatie Ray.

I built a free, open-source alternative var_dump() — real-time PHP debugging in the browser

Yeah, I would also like to check it out.
XDebug is still the best method, but it’s just always annoying to set up and often too much effort to set up for quick debugging.
So please make the repository public and give an update when it’s available :)

The repository returns a 404 error; it appears to be private.