# symfony/var-dumper

Provides mechanisms for walking through any arbitrary PHP variable

Repository: https://github.com/symfony/var-dumper
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/var-dumper
Homepage: https://symfony.com/var-dumper
Language: PHP
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: php, symfony, component, symfony-component, debug, dump
Last push: 2026-08-22T13:47:13+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 99/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 99, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4359, "days_push": 11, "days_rel": 11, "gap_med": 0, "n_releases_24m": 54}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 7428, forks 102 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:59.830804+00:00)

## What it is
The Symfony VarDumper component provides mechanisms for walking through any arbitrary PHP variable, offering an improved dump() function to replace var_dump(). It supports configurable output formats (HTML or colored CLI), specialized object/resource views, and reference inspection.

## Use cases
- inspect complex PHP variables during development
- replace var_dump with a better dump function
- dump variables with HTML or colored CLI output
- debug Doctrine entities without dumping proxy internals
- inspect object and array reference structures
- dump variables from PHPUnit test suites
- run a dump server to collect dumps over the network

## When to choose
- you need readable, structured variable dumps in PHP
- you want framework-agnostic debugging in any PHP project
- you need to inspect deep object graphs or references
- you want Twig or Symfony DebugBundle integration

## When to avoid
- you need a full step debugger with breakpoints (use Xdebug)
- you need production profiling or APM (use a monitoring tool)
- your project is not PHP

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: developer-tools, logging
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: php, cli, cross-platform
- tags: debugging, dump, var-dump, symfony-component, php, web-server

## Member repositories
- symfony/var-dumper (main) score 99

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:59.830804+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:37:44.421310+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/symfony/var-dumper (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:59.830804+00:00, sha 940197bfc310)
  - homepage: https://symfony.com/var-dumper (fetched 2026-08-29T08:33:16.097204+00:00, sha e6b4f8d50646)
  - site_page: https://symfony.com/doc (fetched 2026-08-29T08:33:16.106092+00:00, sha 44889134f4fb)
  - site_page: https://symfony.com/doc/current/components/var_dumper.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:33:16.108187+00:00, sha c3305e6e416e)
  - site_page: https://symfony.com/releases (fetched 2026-08-29T08:33:16.110664+00:00, sha f109a7a4a5da)
  - site_page: https://symfony.com/blog/category/releases (fetched 2026-08-29T08:33:16.112386+00:00, sha f34945599288)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.