Composer packages in the Package Registry (FREE)

Introduced in GitLab Premium 13.2.

Moved to GitLab Free in 13.3.

Support for Composer 2.0 added in GitLab Free 13.10.

Publish Composer packages in your project's Package Registry. Then, install the packages whenever you need to use them as a dependency.

For documentation of the specific API endpoints that the Composer client uses, see the Composer API documentation.

Create a Composer package

If you do not have a Composer package, create one and check it in to a repository. This example shows a GitLab repository, but the repository can be any public or private repository.

WARNING: If you are using a GitLab repository, the project must have been created from a group's namespace, rather than a user's namespace. Composer packages can't be published to projects created from a user's namespace.

Create a directory called my-composer-package and change to that directory:
```
mkdir my-composer-package && cd my-composer-package
```

Run composer init and answer the prompts.

For namespace, enter your unique namespace, like your GitLab username or group name.

A file called composer.json is created:

{
  "name": "<namespace>/composer-test",
  "description": "Library XY",
  "type": "library",
  "license": "GPL-3.0-only",
  "authors": [
     {
         "name": "John Doe",
         "email": "john@example.com"
     }
  ],
  "require": {}
}

Run Git commands to tag the changes and push them to your repository:

git init
git add composer.json
git commit -m 'Composer package test'
git tag v1.0.0
git remote add origin git@gitlab.example.com:<namespace>/<project-name>.git
git push --set-upstream origin main
git push origin v1.0.0

The package is now in your GitLab Package Registry.

Publish a Composer package by using the API

Publish a Composer package to the Package Registry, so that anyone who can access the project can use the package as a dependency.

Prerequisites:

A package in a GitLab repository. Composer packages should be versioned based on the Composer specification. If the version is not valid, for example, it has three dots (1.0.0.0), an error (Validation failed: Version is invalid) occurs when you publish.
A valid composer.json file.
The Packages feature is enabled in a GitLab repository.
The project ID, which is on the project's home page.
A personal access token with the scope set to api.

NOTE: Deploy tokens are not yet supported for use with Composer.

To publish the package:

Send a POST request to the Packages API.

For example, you can use curl:
```
curl --data tag=<tag> "https://__token__:<personal-access-token>@gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/<project_id>/packages/composer"
```
- <personal-access-token> is your personal access token.
- <project_id> is your project ID.
- <tag> is the Git tag name of the version you want to publish. To publish a branch, use branch=<branch> instead of tag=<tag>.

You can view the published package by going to Packages & Registries > Package Registry and selecting the Composer tab.

Publish a Composer package by using CI/CD

You can publish a Composer package to the Package Registry as part of your CI/CD process.

Specify a CI_JOB_TOKEN in your .gitlab-ci.yml file:

stages:
  - deploy

deploy:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - 'curl --header "Job-Token: $CI_JOB_TOKEN" --data tag=<tag> "${CI_API_V4_URL}/projects/$CI_PROJECT_ID/packages/composer"'

Run the pipeline.

To view the published package, go to Packages & Registries > Package Registry and select the Composer tab.

Use a CI/CD template

A more detailed Composer CI/CD file is also available as a .gitlab-ci.yml template:

On the left sidebar, select Project information.
Above the file list, click Set up CI/CD. If this button is not available, select CI/CD Configuration and then Edit.
From the Apply a template list, select Composer.

WARNING: Do not save unless you want to overwrite the existing CI/CD file.

Publishing packages with the same name or version

When you publish:

The same package with different data, it overwrites the existing package.
The same package with the same data, a 404 Bad request error occurs.

Install a Composer package

Install a package from the Package Registry so you can use it as a dependency.

Prerequisites:

A package in the Package Registry.
The group ID, which is on the group's home page.
A personal access token with the scope set to, at minimum, read_api.

NOTE: Deploy tokens are not yet supported for use with Composer.

To install a package:

Add the Package Registry URL to your project's composer.json file, along with the package name and version you want to install:

Connect to the Package Registry for your group:

composer config repositories.<group_id> composer https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/group/<group_id>/-/packages/composer/

Set the required package version:

composer require <package_name>:<version>

Result in the composer.json file:

{
  ...
  "repositories": {
    "<group_id>": {
      "type": "composer",
      "url": "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/group/<group_id>/-/packages/composer/"
    },
    ...
  },
  "require": {
    ...
    "<package_name>": "<version>"
  },
  ...
}

You can unset this with the command:

composer config --unset repositories.<group_id>

<group_id> is the group ID.
<package_name> is the package name defined in your package's composer.json file.
<version> is the package version.

Create an auth.json file with your GitLab credentials:
```
composer config gitlab-token.<DOMAIN-NAME> <personal_access_token>
```
Result in the auth.json file:
```
{
  ...
  "gitlab-token": {
    "<DOMAIN-NAME>": "<personal_access_token>",
    ...
  }
}
```
You can unset this with the command:
```
composer config --unset --auth gitlab-token.<DOMAIN-NAME>
```
- <DOMAIN-NAME> is the GitLab instance URL gitlab.com or gitlab.example.com.
- <personal_access_token> with the scope set to read_api.

If you are on a GitLab self-managed instance, add gitlab-domains to composer.json.

composer config gitlab-domains gitlab01.example.com gitlab02.example.com

Result in the composer.json file:

{
  ...
  "repositories": [
    { "type": "composer", "url": "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/group/<group_id>/-/packages/composer/" }
  ],
  "config": {
    ...
    "gitlab-domains": ["gitlab01.example.com", "gitlab02.example.com"]
  },
  "require": {
    ...
    "<package_name>": "<version>"
  },
  ...
}

You can unset this with the command:

composer config --unset gitlab-domains

NOTE: On GitLab.com, Composer uses the GitLab token from auth.json as a private token by default. Without the gitlab-domains definition in composer.json, Composer uses the GitLab token as basic-auth, with the token as a username and a blank password. This results in a 401 error.

With the composer.json and auth.json files configured, you can install the package by running:
```
composer update
```
Or to install the single package:
```
composer req <package-name>:<package-version>
```
If successful, you should see output indicating that the package installed successfully.

You can also install from source (by pulling the Git repository directly) using the --prefer-source option:
```
composer update --prefer-source
```

WARNING: Never commit the auth.json file to your repository. To install packages from a CI/CD job, consider using the composer config tool with your personal access token stored in a GitLab CI/CD variable or in HashiCorp Vault.

Supported CLI commands

The GitLab Composer repository supports the following Composer CLI commands:

composer install: Install Composer dependencies.
composer update: Install the latest version of Composer dependencies.