README

A Laravel package that intercepts dump() and dd() calls and streams them to a dedicated terminal server — keeping your browser responses clean while you debug.

Inspired by Symfony's var-dump-server, built for the Laravel ecosystem.

Features

• Intercepts all dump() / dd() calls and forwards them to a running terminal server
• Falls back to CLI or HTML output when the server is not running
• Attaches request context (URI, method, controller) and a stack trace to every dump
• Optional log channel support — write every dump to a Laravel log channel
• Global helpers: dump_if(), dump_unless(), dd_if(), dd_unless()
• DumpFake testing utility with rich PHPUnit assertions
• Production guard — the handler is never registered when APP_ENV=production
• Configurable clone depth and item limits via environment variables

Requirements

Installation

Install as a dev dependency (recommended — debug tooling should not ship to production):

composer require anil/dump --dev

If you need the dump server available in production (e.g. for staging environments or log-channel mirroring), install it as a regular dependency instead:

composer require anil/dump

The service provider is auto-discovered. Then run the install command to publish the config and add the required environment variables:

php artisan dump:install

This will:

• Publish config/dump-server.php
• Append DUMP_SERVER_HOST, DUMP_SERVER_ENABLED, and DUMP_SERVER_LOG_ENABLED to both .env and .env.example

Usage

1. Start the dump server

In a separate terminal, start the server before making requests:

php artisan dump:server

Output HTML instead of CLI output:

php artisan dump:server --format=html

2. Call dump() or dd() as usual

dump($user);
dump(['key' => 'value']);
dd($request->all());

When the server is running, output is captured and displayed in the server terminal — with request context and a stack trace — instead of inline in the browser.

When the server is not running, dump() falls back to normal CLI or HTML output.

Helper Functions

Four conditional helpers are available globally:

// Dump only when the condition is true
dump_if($user->isAdmin(), $user);

// Dump only when the condition is false
dump_unless($request->isJson(), $request->all());

// Die-and-dump only when the condition is true
dd_if(app()->isLocal(), $response);

// Die-and-dump only when the condition is false
dd_unless($feature->isEnabled(), $payload);

Configuration

Publish the config file manually if needed:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=dump-server-config

config/dump-server.php:

return [
    // TCP host the server listens on
    'host' => env('DUMP_SERVER_HOST', 'tcp://127.0.0.1:9912'),

    // Set to false to disable the handler entirely in an environment
    'enabled' => env('DUMP_SERVER_ENABLED', true),

    // VarCloner limits — increase for deeply nested structures
    'max_depth' => env('DUMP_SERVER_MAX_DEPTH', 10),
    'max_items' => env('DUMP_SERVER_MAX_ITEMS', 2500),

    // Optionally mirror every dump to a log channel
    'log' => [
        'enabled' => env('DUMP_SERVER_LOG_ENABLED', false),
        'channel' => env('DUMP_SERVER_LOG_CHANNEL', 'stack'),
        'level'   => env('DUMP_SERVER_LOG_LEVEL', 'debug'),
    ],
];

Environment variables

Testing

The package ships with DumpFake, a drop-in test helper that captures dumps and provides PHPUnit assertions.

use Anil\Dump\Testing\DumpFake;

$fake = DumpFake::fake();

dump('hello');
dump(42);
dump(['a' => 1]);

// Assert a specific value was dumped
$fake->assertDumped('hello');

// Assert a value was NOT dumped
$fake->assertNotDumped('world');

// Assert nothing was dumped
$fake->assertNothingDumped();

// Assert the total number of dumps
$fake->assertDumpedCount(3);

// Assert using a custom callback
$fake->assertDumpedUsing(fn ($v) => is_array($v) && isset($v['a']));

// Retrieve all captured values
$dumped = $fake->getDumped();

// Restore the original handler when done
$fake->restore();

Running the test suite

composer test

Static Analysis

The package is analysed at PHPStan level 10 with Larastan:

composer analyse

Code Style

Formatting is enforced with Laravel Pint:

composer format       # fix
composer format:check # check only

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for release history.

License

The MIT License (MIT). See LICENSE for details.