Radiography

Why it's ranked here

Its strongest feature is controlled, readable diagnostics from live UI state. Scope selection, composable tags, combined filters, custom attribute renderers, and raw hierarchy access make it useful beyond simple printing. Privacy-aware defaults strengthen the case: text values stay excluded unless the caller explicitly includes them.

What's good

The default output captures useful state without exposing text content, while an explicit option can include and truncate text. Filters remove whole subtrees by Android identifier or Compose test tag. Custom renderers append domain-specific attributes. Raw nodes expose children, modifiers, semantic configurations, geometry, and Compose call-chain information for programmatic checks.

Tradeoffs

Compose support is experimental and depends on the tooling library. Internal Compose changes can prevent hierarchy rendering until Radiography or the dependency changes. Background-thread scans move work to the view’s looper and stop waiting after five seconds. Filtering a node also removes every descendant. Including actual text can expose personally identifiable information.

How to use it well

Use it in Android debugging, automated checks, and bug-report collection when a compact structural snapshot explains UI state better than prose. Keep the privacy-preserving renderers as the default, narrow scans to relevant windows or tags, and add custom attributes only when they answer recurring questions. It does not provide a visual image of the rendered screen.

Observed

License

Apache License 2.0

Primary language

Kotlin

Packaging

Published as the Maven dependency com.squareup.radiography:radiography

Interfaces

Android library API and Stoic command plugin

Platform support

Android Views, with experimental Jetpack Compose support

Default privacy behavior

Default renderers exclude text values and report text lengths