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filo - no-extension call tracer for PHP
Trace & debug your PHP app. No Xdebug, no extensions
filo is a zero-extension call tracer for PHP. Record any request, explore it as a flamegraph and call tree, or pause it live and inspect variables at a breakpoint.
Hey Product Hunt 👋
I'm Giacomo, and filo is my open-source PHP call tracer: an Xdebug alternative that doesn't need an extension.
Why I built it: every time I wanted to know why a request was slow, the answer was "install Xdebug". That means a PECL extension, php.ini edits, IDE setup, and a slower app while it's loaded. I wanted something I could add with Composer and switch on with a file.
How it works:
📦 composer require --dev giacomomasseron/filo
📄 Create an empty .filo-on file in your project root. Every request (or CLI command) now writes a trace. Delete the file to stop, no restart needed.
🔥 vendor/bin/filo serve opens a local viewer: flamegraph, call tree with self-time, and a top-functions table where repeated calls (hello, N+1) jump out.
Under the hood it's pure PHP. It rewrites your code on the fly as it's loaded and runs the instrumented copy from a cache. Your files are never touched. PHP 8.1+, any Composer project.
Also included:
⏸️ Breakpoints by function name. The request pauses, you inspect its arguments and $this in the browser, then hit continue. Pause time is left out of the timings.
✅ Performance checks for Pest and PHPUnit, e.g.
expect(fn () => $service->list())->toCall('App\Repo::find')->atMost(1)
to catch an N+1 in CI before it ships.
Honest limits: breakpoints fire only on function entry (no stepping, that's still Xdebug's job), and for now opcache has to be off while you trace.
The name: filo is Italian for "thread", as in Ariadne's thread, the one that leads you out of the labyrinth. Here, the labyrinth is your call stack.
It's MIT-licensed and free. I'd love to hear what you'd trace first, and what's missing:
Laravel/Symfony integrations, sampling for staging, exporting to other profilers?
About filo - no-extension call tracer for PHP on Product Hunt
“Trace & debug your PHP app. No Xdebug, no extensions”
filo - no-extension call tracer for PHP was submitted on Product Hunt and earned 2 upvotes and 1 comments, placing #140 on the daily leaderboard. filo is a zero-extension call tracer for PHP. Record any request, explore it as a flamegraph and call tree, or pause it live and inspect variables at a breakpoint.
On the analytics side, filo - no-extension call tracer for PHP competes within Developer Tools, GitHub and Tech — topics that collectively have 1.2M followers on Product Hunt. The dashboard above tracks how filo - no-extension call tracer for PHP performed against the three products that launched closest to it on the same day.
Who hunted filo - no-extension call tracer for PHP?
filo - no-extension call tracer for PHP was hunted by Giacomo. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
For a complete overview of filo - no-extension call tracer for PHP including community comment highlights and product details, visit the product overview.
Giacomo