gRPC server reflection protocol implementation

Installation

composer require thesis/grpc-server-reflection

Usage

Reflection v1 only (registerV1)

Use this when you only need reflection v1.

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

use Thesis\Grpc\Server;
use Thesis\Grpc\Server\Reflection;

$server = new Server\Builder()
    ->withServices(/* your service registries */)
    ->build();

Reflection\registerV1($server);

$server->start();

Reflection v1 + v1alpha (registerV1Alpha)

Use this when you need both reflection endpoints: v1 and v1alpha (deprecated).

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

use Thesis\Grpc\Server;
use Thesis\Grpc\Server\Reflection;

$server = new Server\Builder()
    ->withServices(/* your service registries */)
    ->build();

Reflection\registerV1Alpha($server);

$server->start();

Why

Server Reflection lets gRPC clients discover services and schemas at runtime, without local .proto files.

This is useful for:

• ad-hoc debugging and smoke checks when proto files are not locally available;
• interactive API exploration;
• fast integration checks in CI and local development.

With reflection enabled you can use tools like grpcurl and grpcui.

grpcurl

# List all services
grpcurl -plaintext localhost:50051 list

# Show methods for a service
grpcurl -plaintext localhost:50051 describe thesis.echos.api.v1.EchoService

grpcui

grpcui -plaintext localhost:50051

Then open the URL printed by grpcui in your browser.