Installation

Requirements

  • Craft CMS 5.3 or later
  • PHP 8.2 or later
  • MySQL or MariaDB for the database checks — on PostgreSQL that area records itself as skipped rather than guessing

There are no required runtime Composer dependencies beyond Craft itself.

Install via Composer

Open your terminal in your project root and run:

composer require justinholtweb/craft-microscope

Install the plugin

php craft plugin/install microscope

Or go to Settings → Plugins in the control panel and click “Install” next to Microscope.

Server-rendered PDFs (optional)

Microscope always gives you a print-optimised report page that any browser will save as a PDF. If you also want a file — to email, to attach to a scheduled scan, or to archive — install dompdf:

composer require dompdf/dompdf

It is optional deliberately. Every published dompdf release carries a security advisory, and Composer’s audit policy blocks flagged packages by default — requiring it would make Microscope uninstallable on any site with that policy switched on. Without dompdf everything still works and the PDF route redirects to the printable one.

Both dompdf 2.x and 3.x are supported, so a site that already has it through Craft Commerce, Formie or Freeform needs no extra install. See Reports and PDFs.

Next steps

There is nothing to configure before the first scan. Run one:

php craft microscope/scan/run

— or open Microscope in the control panel and click Run a scan, which is the more accurate way to measure the PHP area. See Running a scan.

Next: Running a scan