Home

PHP Composer

Basic commands

# Initialize a project (similar to: npm init)
# Note: Composer has NO equivalent to "npm init -y"
composer init

# Minimal composer.json (closest to npm init -y)
{
  "name": "vendor/project",
  "require": {}
}

# Install all dependencies (similar to: npm install)
composer install

# Install a package (similar to: npm install <name>)
composer require < package >

# Install a dev dependency (similar to: npm install -D <name>)
# Note: Composer has NO "-D" alias — only "--dev"
composer require --dev < package >

# Remove a package (similar to: npm uninstall <name>)
composer remove < package >

# Update all dependencies (similar to: npm update)
composer update

# Update a specific package (similar to: npm update <name>)
composer update < package >

# Show available updates (similar to: npm outdated)
composer outdated

# Regenerate autoloader (similar to: npm rebuild)
composer dump-autoload

# Run scripts from composer.json (similar to: npm run <script>)
composer run < script >

# Install a global package (similar to: npm install -g <name>)
composer global require < package >

# Update global packages (similar to: npm update -g)
composer global update

# Show package info (similar to: npm info <name>)
composer show < package >

# List installed packages (similar to: npm list)
composer show --installed

# Update Composer itself (similar to: npm install -g npm)
composer self-update

# Since composer 2.4 (similar to: npm audit)
composer audit

# Note: there is no command similar to npm audit fix, instead:
composer update < package >