Sentry PHP SDK: Official Error Tracking for PHP

Understanding the Sentry PHP SDK

Official Sentry SDK for PHP is getsentry's client library for reporting errors and exceptions from a PHP application to Sentry, the hosted (and self-hostable) error-tracking platform. It wraps error capture and API transport behind two functions: \Sentry\init() to configure a DSN, and \Sentry\captureException() to send a caught exception to your Sentry project, so you see what broke and where instead of digging through server logs after the fact.

Core Capabilities for Error Tracking

• ✓Two-function core API: \Sentry\init(['dsn' => ...]) to configure, \Sentry\captureException($exception) inside a catch block to report — no framework required to get a first event flowing.
• ✓Installed via Composer as the sentry/sentry package, so it drops into any PHP project's existing dependency graph.
• ✓Official Symfony and Laravel integrations (sentry-symfony, sentry-laravel) maintained by the Sentry team itself, not bolted on by the community.
• ✓A long tail of community-maintained integrations spanning four SDK generations (1.x through 4.x), covering CMS and framework targets Sentry itself doesn't maintain, including Drupal, WordPress, Magento 2, Joomla!, Neos, TYPO3, Zend Framework, Yii2, Silverstripe, CakePHP, October CMS, OXID eShop, and OpenCart.
• ✓MIT-licensed, so there are no license terms restricting how you embed it in a commercial codebase.
• ✓A public bug tracker on GitHub and a Sentry Community Discord server for setup help, per the README.

Installing the SDK with Composer

Install the SDK with Composer: `composer require sentry/sentry`. That pulls in the sentry/sentry package and its dependencies; the README doesn't list a minimum PHP version or other prerequisites beyond having Composer available, so check the package's own composer.json if you need to confirm compatibility with your PHP version.

Basic Configuration and Error Capture

Initialize Official Sentry SDK for PHP as early as possible in your application's bootstrap with `\Sentry\init(['dsn' => '<your DSN>'])`, using the DSN value your Sentry project gives you. From there, wrap risky code in a try/catch block and call `\Sentry\captureException($exception)` inside the catch to send that exception to Sentry. The README's own example follows exactly that shape — throw, catch, and report — with nothing more elaborate than two function calls needed to get a first event into your Sentry project.

Integrating with PHP Frameworks and CMS

• •Symfony or Laravel apps, via the official sentry-symfony or sentry-laravel packages that wrap this core SDK with framework-specific error handlers.
• •WordPress or Drupal sites, using the community-maintained wp-sentry-integration plugin or the Drupal raven project, both built on this SDK.
• •Magento 2 stores, through either of two community integrations (from JustBetter or Mygento) that plug this SDK into Magento's own error handling.
• •Older or niche PHP stacks — Zend Framework, Yii2, Silverstripe, CakePHP, October CMS, TYPO3, Joomla!, Neos, or OXID eShop — each with its own community-built integration tied to a specific SDK generation (the README separates these by SDK 1.x through 4.x compatibility).
• •Any custom PHP codebase with no framework at all, since the two core functions (init and captureException) work standalone.

Other PHP Error Monitoring Solutions

Common Questions About Sentry PHP

The problem it solves

PHP applications throw exceptions and errors constantly in production, but by default that information sits in a server log file — or nowhere — instead of somewhere a developer can search, group by type, and act on before a user files a support ticket. Official Sentry SDK for PHP exists to close that gap for PHP specifically: it's the client code that intercepts an exception inside your PHP process and forwards it, with context, to a Sentry project, turning a scroll through raw logs into a single event you can review inside Sentry.

Who should try it — and who should skip

Try Official Sentry SDK for PHP if you already run (or plan to run) a Sentry project — hosted on sentry.io or self-hosted — and want the officially maintained PHP client instead of rolling your own error-reporting glue, especially on Symfony or Laravel where the integrations are built and maintained by the Sentry team itself. Skip it if you don't have a Sentry destination for the events, or if your stack depends on one of the older community-maintained integrations (SDK 1.x-3.x era) where you'd need to verify it's still actively kept up before depending on it.

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