Composer tips and tricks
You may encounter issues when developing Adobe Commerce modules with Composer. These best practices describe some common tasks to make development easier and help you quickly resolve issues.
Speed up Composer
Install https://github.com/hirak/prestissimo to speed up Composer with asynchronous package downloads.
composer global require hirak/prestissimo
If you encounter problems, uninstall prestissimo:
composer global remove hirak/prestissimo
Resolve vague versioning issues
Composer sometimes gets deadlocked with package versions. You may see messages about versions that are incompatible even if they are not. Before debugging compatibility issues, try resetting Composer:
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Clear the Composer cache.
code language-bash composer clearcache -
Remove the
composer.lockfile for all packages.code language-bash rm -rf vendor/* composer.lock -
Reinstall the Composer packages.
code language-bash composer install
composer.lock file from Git to undo these upgrades.Check for possible updates in client packages
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Find out which packages might be outdated.
code language-bash composer outdated -
Filter using wildcards and/or the
--minor-onlyoption to skip backward-incompatible upgrades:code language-bash composer outdated 'magento/*' composer outdated --minor-only 'magento/*'
Find out if a module is installed
View details about all installed packages on a Git branch.
composer info
Run composer install after switching Git branches and before running composer info. Otherwise, Composer shows details about the previous branch that you had checked out.
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Find out why a (specific version of a) package is installed
Sometimes, Composer installs the latest available version of a package because of a strict dependency in another package.
Find out if there is a strict dependency in another package.
composer why client/module-example
If the results show a list of metapackages or another package that is not explicitly required, run the command on that package:
composer why example/metapackage
Find out why a package is not installed
Sometimes, Composer does not install a package because it conflicts with another package, another package replaces it, or you haven’t defined it is as a dependency.
Find out why a package is not installed.
composer why-not client/module-example
Host a private Composer repository
If you require a private Composer repository, use Private Packagist or JFrog Artifactory. Do not use Satis.
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Private Packagist is secure, costs around $600 USD per year with three admin users and is hosted.
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JFrog Artifactory starts at $1,176 USD per year. It is not as commonly used as Packagist, but it supports more languages than PHP.
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Satis has no built-in security, no automation, and requires additional hosting. It is only free if your time is also free.
Versioning packages
Use Semantic Versioning 2.0.0 as described in the Adobe Commerce versioning schema. Do not reinvent the wheel.
For Adobe Commerce module dependencies, follow the module version dependencies documentation.
Do not use the version definition inside the composer.json file. Instead, use Git tags for versions. See Composer Versions and constraints.
Where to put modules that come in an archive file and not through Composer
Create a Git repository for modules in an archive and host them yourself. Every Adobe Commerce module has a composer.json file. After you host it in Git and synchronize it with Private Packagist, you can install it with Composer.
When you receive a new version of the package, upload the code to Git, tag it, and install the new version with Composer.