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Xdebug Update: November 2025
Original Post

In this update I explain what happened with Xdebug development in the last month.

In the last month, I spent around 28 hours on Xdebug, with 24 hours funded.

Xdebug 3.5

Most of this month I spent on making Xdebug 3.5 ready, to coincide with the release of PHP 8.5.

First there were a few bug reports from the alpha releases, and I found some issues with the new Native Path Mapping myself. I also fixed a crash bug, and released the last pre-release version: 3.5.0alpha3.

After that release, I worked with the author of the PHP Debug Adapter for Visual Studio Code to bring Xdebug's control sockets to Windows. This held up the release of Xdebug 3.5 a little, as we wanted to get this right.

With this, I also created documentation for the Xdebug Control tool, which can be used to talk to Xdebug to initiate debugging sessions, and to force pausing running code without setting a breakpoint beforehand. This is only available on Linux and Windows.

Documentation Upgrades

While working on the documentation for the Xdebug Control tool, I went down the rabbit hole, and revamped the layout of the documentation's front page too. Instead of a single list with bullet points, there are now sections, and some images depicting the different features.

I also added a section on Flame Graphs. This feature that I added in Xdebug 3.3 was not yet documented.

PIE and PECL

I also documented how to install Xdebug with PIE, the new installer for PHP extensions based around the packagist ecosystem.

PIE is replacing the legacy PECL tool and website. Installing Xdebug with PECL is no longer the preferred installation method. Using PIE is strongly recommended.

In the future, there will no longer be new versions of Xdebug uploaded to the PECL website. In the mean time, releases through PECL will be delayed.

Xdebug Videos

I have created no new videos in the last months.

All Xdebug videos can be watched on my channel.

If you have any suggestions, feel free to reach out to me on Mastodon or via email.

Business Supporter Scheme and Funding

On GitHub sponsors, I am currently 42% towards my $2,500 per month goal, which is set to allow continued of Xdebug.

If you are leading a team or company, then it is also possible to support Xdebug through a subscription.

In the last month, no new business supporters signed up.

Besides business support, I also maintain a Patreon page, a profile on GitHub sponsors, as well as an OpenCollective organisation.

If you want to contribute to specific projects, you can find those on the Projects page.

Xdebug Cloud

Xdebug Cloud is the Proxy As A Service platform to allow for debugging in more scenarios, where it is hard, or impossible, to have Xdebug make a connection to the IDE. It is continuing to operate as Beta release.

Packages start at £49/month, and I have recently introduced a package for larger companies. This has a larger initial set of tokens, and discounted extra tokens.

If you want to be kept up to date with Xdebug Cloud, please sign up to the mailing list, which I will use to send out an update not more than once a month.