At first glance Kint is just a pretty replacement for var_dump(), print_r() and debug_backtrace().

However, it's much, much more than that. You will eventually wonder how you developed without it.

One of the main goals of Kint is to be zero setup.

Download the file and simply

<?php

require 'kint.phar';

composer require kint-php/kint --dev

<?php

Kint::dump($GLOBALS, $_SERVER); // pass any number of parameters
d($GLOBALS, $_SERVER); // or simply use d() as a shorthand

Kint::trace(); // Debug backtrace

s($GLOBALS); // Basic output mode

~d($GLOBALS); // Text only output mode

Kint::$enabled_mode = false; // Disable kint
d('Get off my lawn!'); // Debugs no longer have any effect

• Kint is enabled by default, set Kint::$enabled_mode = false; to turn it completely off.
  The best practice is to enable Kint in a development environment only - so even if you accidentally leave a dump in production, no one will know.
• See the buttons on the right of the output? Click them to open a new tab, show the access path for the value, or show a search box.
• There are a couple of real-time modifiers you can use:
  • ~d($var) this call will output in plain text format.
  • +d($var) will disregard depth level limits and output everything.
    Careful, this can hang your browser on large objects!
  • !d($var) will expand the output automatically.
  • -d($var) will attempt to ob_clean the previous output and flush after printing.
  • You can combine modifiers too: ~+d($var)
• Double clicking the + sign will open/close it and all its children.
• Triple clicking the + sign in will open/close everything on the page.
• Add heavy classes to the blacklist to improve performance:
  Kint\Parser\BlacklistPlugin::$shallow_blacklist[] = 'Psr\Container\ContainerInterface';
• To see the output in a docked toolbar at the bottom of the page:
  Kint\Renderer\RichRenderer::$folder = true;
• To change display theme, use Kint\Renderer\RichRenderer::$theme = 'theme.css';. You can pass the absolute path to a CSS file, or use one of the built in themes:
  • original.css (default)
  • solarized.css
  • solarized-dark.css
  • aante-light.css
• Kint has keyboard shortcuts! When Kint is visible, press D on the keyboard and you will be able to traverse the tree with arrows, HJKL, and TAB keys - and expand/collapse nodes with SPACE or ENTER.
• You can write plugins and wrapper functions to customize dump behavior!
• Read the full documentation for more information

Jonathan Vollebregt (jnvsor)
Contributors

Licensed under the MIT License