# Configuring Blackfire Continuous Profiler for PHP

[Requires Production Plan](https://www.blackfire.io/pricing)

[configuring continuous profiling](https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/1q_E6fk2Q1Q?rel=0&showinfo=0&modestbranding=1&autoplay=0)

The PHP continuous profiling is currently made across 4 dimensions:

- **CPU Time**: time spent running on the CPU
- **Wall-time**: elapsed time per function call
- **Allocated memory**: number of bytes allocated in memory
- **Allocations**: time spent running on the CPU

## Requirements

- PHP >= 8.2.0
- PHP Non-Thread Safe (NTS) only
- [Blackfire Agent](../up-and-running/configuration/agent) >= 2.13.0

## Installation

- Download the latest [dd-library-php release](https://github.com/DataDog/dd-trace-php/releases)corresponding to your architecture.
- Extract content to `dd-library-php` folder.
- Find the extension in `dd-library-php/profiling/ext/{PHP_API_VERSION}/datadog-profiling.so`where `PHP_API_VERSION` matches `php -i | grep '^PHP API' | cut -f2 -d'='| sed 's/^> //'`
- When loaded, you can see the extension works correctly using `php --ri datadog-profiling`

> **Note**
>
> Blackfire utilizes the open source Datadog profiler to collect continuous profiling traces and, via its [agent](../reference-guide/glossary#term-agent), sends it directly to Blackfire's ingesters where we process and analyze the data for your observability needs.

### Configuration

The following environment variables are available:

- `DD_TRACE_AGENT_URL=unix:///var/run/blackfire/agent.sock`
- `DD_TRACE_ENABLED=false`
- `DD_PROFILING_ENABLED=true`
- `DD_PROFILING_LOG_LEVEL=off`
- `DD_INSTRUMENTATION_TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false`
- `DD_SERVICE="your app name"`