Yevhen Leonidov

Working with <code>WP_DEBUG</code> enabled often floods the screen with notices and deprecation warnings from third-party plugins and themes – things you neither wrote nor can fix. GLOBUS Debug Control lets you filter out the noise and focus on what actually matters.
All settings are available in Settings – GLOBUS Debug Control. The plugin provides eight tabs: Settings, WP_DEBUG, Error Log, Cron Tasks, Transients, Autoloaded, HTTP Log, and Constants. No code editing needed.
<h4>Settings tab</h4>
Choose which errors to see
Turn off specific PHP error types independently:
<ul>
<li>Notices – informational messages that rarely indicate a real problem</li>
<li>Deprecated – warnings about outdated functions, usually from third-party code</li>
<li>Warnings – optional, keep them on if you are actively debugging</li>
<li>Strict – PHP 7 strict standards messages (not applicable in PHP 8+)</li>
</ul>
Control error display
Three modes for showing errors on screen:
<ul>
<li>Inherit – follows your <code>wp-config.php</code> settings (default, non-intrusive)</li>
<li>On – always show errors, useful during active development</li>
<li>Off – hide all errors from screen even if <code>WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY</code> is on</li>
</ul>
Errors are always hidden automatically during AJAX requests, REST API calls, WP-Cron, and WP-CLI, so your API responses stay clean regardless of the display setting.
Error logging
Enable logging to capture errors in a file instead of (or in addition to) showing them on screen:
<ul>
<li>Set a custom log file path (absolute or relative to <code>wp-content/</code>)</li>
<li>Set a maximum log file size (1-100 MB); the file rotates automatically when the limit is reached</li>
<li>Defaults to <code>wp-content/debug.log</code> if no path is specified</li>
</ul>
Remove the php-error CSS class
When WordPress encounters a PHP error, it adds a <code>php-error</code> class to the <code><body></code> tag, which can break your page layout. This option removes it via both CSS and JavaScript so your front-end and admin look normal even in debug mode.
Early error interception (optional)
WordPress loads plugins in alphabetical order. If another plugin throws an error before GLOBUS Debug Control initialises, those errors will not be filtered. Enabling the MU-plugin dropin installs a small helper file into <code>wp-content/mu-plugins/</code> that runs before any regular plugin, ensuring your filter settings apply from the very start of the request. The dropin is removed automatically when the plugin is deactivated or uninstalled.
<h4>WP_DEBUG tab</h4>
Toggle the five most important debug constants directly from the admin panel without editing <code>wp-config.php</code>:
<ul>
<li><code>WP_DEBUG</code> – master debug switch</li>
<li><code>WP_DEBUG_LOG</code> – write errors to a log file</li>
<li><code>WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY</code> – show errors on screen</li>
<li><code>SCRIPT_DEBUG</code> – use unminified core JS/CSS</li>
<li><code>SAVEQUERIES</code> – log all database queries</li>
</ul>
The plugin locates your <code>wp-config.php</code> automatically and patches it in place, adding the constant if it is missing or updating the existing value. Commented-out defines and block-comment sections are never touched. The current status of <code>WP_DEBUG</code> is always visible as a badge in the plugin header.
<h4>Error Log tab</h4>
Displays the contents of your <code>debug.log</code> file directly in the admin panel using a CodeMirror editor with line numbers. Lines are color-coded by severity: fatal/parse errors, warnings, notices/deprecations, and cron-related messages. The log is paginated (200 lines per page), supports live polling for new entries, and can be downloaded or cleared with one click. Large log files (over 2 MB) are read from the tail to keep memory usage low.
<h4>Cron Tasks tab</h4>
Lists all scheduled WordPress cron events with hook name, next run time, recurrence interval, and arguments. Summary cards show total events, overdue count, orphaned hooks, and duplicates. Overdue events are highlighted. You can run any event immediately or delete orphaned hooks directly from the table.
<h4>Transients tab</h4>
Displays database-stored WordPress transients from the options table with key name, data size, and expiration time. Transients stored in an external object cache (Redis, Memcached) are not shown. Expired transients are highlighted. You can delete individual transients or purge all expired ones in one click. Summary cards show total count, expired count, and total data size.
<h4>Autoloaded tab</h4>
Lists autoloaded options from <code>wp_options</code> sorted by data size (top 200). Shows the option name and value size. Summary cards display total autoloaded row count and total payload size with warnings when thresholds are exceeded (over 800 KB or over 100 rows). This is a read-only diagnostic view to help identify options that inflate every WordPress request.
<h4>HTTP Log tab</h4>
Captures outgoing WordPress HTTP API requests (<code>wp_remote_get</code>, <code>wp_remote_post</code>, etc.) via the <code>http_api_debug</code> hook. Capturing must be explicitly enabled and stores up to 100 entries (6-hour TTL). Each entry shows the request URL, HTTP method, status code, response time, and transport class. Useful for spotting slow or failing external API calls.
<h4>Constants tab</h4>
Displays all WordPress-related PHP constants defined at runtime, grouped by category: Debug, Performance, Security, Database, Auth and Salts, Paths, and Other WP_* constants. Sensitive values (database password, auth keys, salts) are automatically masked. This is a read-only reference view.

GLOBUS Debug Control

WordPress debug toolkit: filter errors, toggle WP_DEBUG, view error logs, monitor cron, transients, HTTP requests, and more.

Andy Fragen

This plugin sets the following debug constants in <code>wp-config.php</code> on plugin activation and removes them on plugin deactivation. Any errors will result in a PHP Exception being thrown. Debug constants per <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/advanced-administration/debug/debug-wordpress/" rel="nofollow ugc">Debugging in WordPress</a>.
Default settings:
<pre><code>define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'SCRIPT_DEBUG', true );
define( 'SAVEQUERIES', true );
</code></pre>
  
 @ini_set( ‘display_errors’, 1 ); is set when the plugin is active. <code>WP_DEBUG</code> is set to true when the plugin is first run, thereafter it can be turned off in the Settings.
The Settings page allows the user to set the following.
<pre><code>define( 'WP_DEBUG', true ); // Default on initial plugin installation.
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false ); // Default when not declared is true.
define( 'WP_DISABLE_FATAL_ERROR_HANDLER', true ); // WordPress 5.2 WSOD Override.
</code></pre>
When the plugin is deactivated best efforts are made to re-add pre-existing constants to their former state. When the plugin is activated the default settings and any saved settings are restored.
This plugin uses the <a href="https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-config-transformer" rel="nofollow ugc">wp-cli/wp-config-transformer</a> command for writing constants to <code>wp-config.php</code>.
<a href="https://github.com/norcross/debug-quick-look" rel="nofollow ugc">Debug Quick Look</a> from Andrew Norcross is included with this plugin to assist in reading the debug.log file. If you already have this plugin installed you should delete it when WP Debugging is not active.
<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/query-monitor/" rel="ugc">Query Monitor</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/debug-bar/" rel="ugc">Debug Bar</a> plugins are optional dependencies to aid in debugging and troubleshooting. The notice for installation will recur 45 days after being dismissed.
If you have a non-standard location for your <code>wp-config.php</code> file you can use the filter <code>wp_debugging_config_path</code> to return the file path for your installation.
The filter <code>wp_debugging_add_constants</code> allows the user to add constants to <code>wp-config.php</code>.
The filter returns an array where the key is the name of the constant and the value is an array of data containing the value as a string and a boolean to indicate whether or not the value should be passed without quotes.
<pre><code>$my_constants = [
 'my_test_constant' =>
 [
 'value' => 'abc123',
 'raw' => false,
 ],
 'another_test_constant' => [ 'value' => 'true' ],
];
</code></pre>
The <code>value</code> option contains the constant’s value as a string.
The <code>raw</code> option means that instead of placing the value inside the config as a string it will become unquoted. The default is <code>true</code>. Set as <code>false</code> for non-boolean values.
Example:
<pre><code>add_filter(
 'wp_debugging_add_constants',
 function( $added_constants ) {
 $my_constants = [
 'my_test_constant' => [
 'value' => '124xyz',
 'raw' => false,
 ],
 'another_test_constant' => [ 'value' => 'true' ],
 ];
 return array_merge( $added_constants, $my_constants );
 },
 10,
 1
);
</code></pre>
This will create the following constants.
<pre><code>define( 'MY_TEST_CONSTANT', '124xyz' );
define( 'ANOTHER_TEST_CONSTANT', true );
</code></pre>
<h3>Development</h3>
PRs are welcome against the <a href="https://github.com/afragen/wp-debugging" rel="nofollow ugc">develop branch on GitHub</a>.

WP Debugging

This helps me support customers and get better debugging information about errors happening on their site without having to ask for sensitive login info. Simple and does a great job, I've used it or recommended it a dozen times in the last month.

Great support tool

I can't tell you the number of times I've had to handle a support request that involved a white screen. Thank you, @afragen, for building this awesome tool to help define constants for a file that isn't easily accessible without passing around credentials.

Super Handy!

Thanks for the useful plugin, we're going to start recommending this to our customers.

Useful Plugin

Thank you for this useful and beautiful plugin, helps me a lot.

Very useful

Quick access to the log files speeds up development!

Great plugin

With this plugin it's at last possible to debug a remote site wihtout having access to the cpanel!

Very useful!


Every time I come across an obscure problem on WordPress sites, I start looking for it by installing this plugin.Thanks to the developers for a great tool!


Perfect tool for debug.

Yet another one of your plugins that I love and use all the time!  Thank you.  (Side note: is there a place to buy you a coffee or donate for your time?)

Another great debugging plugin


I've been using the WP Debugging plugin since 2024, and it has been a lifesaver. The error log feature alone helped me track down several issues that would have taken hours to find manually.



The fact that it integrates with Query Monitor is a nice bonus too. If you do any WordPress development or troubleshooting, just install this plugin. Five stars, no hesitation.


Absolutely essential for debugging – saved me countless times!

A support/troubleshooting plugin for WordPress.

GLOBUS Debug Control vs WP Debugging