kint-php/kint

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

2818 stars · 291 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

Kint is an advanced variable dumper for PHP, a zero-setup replacement for var_dump() with keyboard controls, search, and automatic data parsing. It unfolds and decodes nested structures like JSON and base64 strings and provides access paths to specific fields.

Use cases

• inspect complex PHP variables during debugging
• replace var_dump with a readable structured dump
• decode and explore nested JSON or base64 strings in PHP
• dump backtraces while debugging PHP code
• find the code path to access a nested data field
• debug PHP applications without installing a full debugger

When to choose

• you want a zero-setup, richer alternative to var_dump() in PHP
• you need to explore deeply nested or encoded data structures interactively
• you want quick debugging output that can be disabled in production with one flag

When to avoid

• you need step debugging with breakpoints rather than variable dumping
• you need a language-agnostic debugger like Xdebug
• you cannot include any debug output in your production environment at all

Facets

library · maturity active

developer-tools logging cli developer-tools php cli debugging var-dump dumper php developer-experience web-server

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="kint-php/kint")