Getting Started

ADP (Application Development Panel) is a framework-agnostic debugging panel for PHP applications. It collects runtime data and provides a web UI to inspect and debug your application.

Prerequisites

• PHP 8.4 or higher
• Composer

Installation

1. Install the adapter for your framework

composer require app-dev-panel/adapter-symfony

Each adapter pulls in app-dev-panel/kernelapp-dev-panel/kernelView on Packagist and app-dev-panel/apiapp-dev-panel/apiView on Packagist as dependencies automatically.

2. Configure your application

// config/bundles.php
return [
    // ...
    AppDevPanel\Adapter\Symfony\AppDevPanelBundle::class => ['dev' => true, 'test' => true],
];

3. Start debugging

Run your application and open http://your-app/debug in your browser. The ADP debug panel shows debug data collected from your application in real-time.

PHP Built-in Server

When using PHP's built-in server, always set PHP_CLI_SERVER_WORKERS=3 or higher. ADP makes concurrent requests (SSE + data fetching); single-worker mode causes timeouts.

PHP_CLI_SERVER_WORKERS=3 php -S 127.0.0.1:8080 -t public

Try the Demo

You can try the panel UI right away with the Live Demo — no installation required. Enter your application's backend URL to connect.

ADP also ships with playground applications for each supported framework:

git clone https://github.com/app-dev-panel/app-dev-panel.git
cd app-dev-panel
make install              # Install all dependencies

Start a playground server:

cd playground/symfony-app && PHP_CLI_SERVER_WORKERS=3 php -S 127.0.0.1:8102 -t public

Architecture Overview

ADP follows a layered architecture:

┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐
│   Frontend   │────▶│     API      │────▶│    Kernel     │
│  (React SPA) │ HTTP│  (REST+SSE)  │     │ (Collectors)  │
└──────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └───────┬───────┘
                                                  │
                                          ┌───────┴───────┐
                                          │    Adapter     │
                                          └───────┬───────┘
                                                  │
                                          ┌───────┴───────┐
                                          │  Target App   │
                                          └───────────────┘

1. Kernel — Core engine managing debugger lifecycle, collectors, and storage
2. API — HTTP layer exposing debug data via REST + SSE
3. Adapter — Framework bridge wiring collectors into your application
4. Frontend — React SPA consuming the API

What's Next?

• What is ADP? — Learn about the project philosophy
• Debug Panel — Configure the embedded debug panel UI
• Architecture — Deep dive into the system design
• Collectors — Understand how data is collected
• Data Flow — Follow data from your app to the panel
• Feature Matrix — See what's supported per framework
• Playgrounds — Try the demo applications