composer init is an interactive command used to create composer.json files. 1. It will prompt for information such as project name, description, author, license, etc.; 2. Ask for required dependencies and development dependencies; 3. Configure automatic loading, scripts and other settings; 4. Generate composer.json files that composer meet the PHP project standards; 5. Non-interactive automatic configuration can be achieved through parameters such as --no-interaction; this command is suitable for initialization of new projects and is the easiest way to set up PHP dependency management configuration. After execution, you need to run composer install to install the listed dependencies, and will not automatically overwrite the existing composer.json file.
composer init
is a command provided by Composer , the dependency manager for PHP. When you run it, Composer walks you through an interactive process to create a composer.json
file for your project.

This file is essential because it defines:
- Your project's name, description, author, license
- Required dependencies (libraries your project dependencies on)
- Development dependencies (tools used during development)
- Autoloading configuration
- Scripts, repositories, and other project settings
What Happens When You Run composer init
Composer will prompt you to answer a series of questions such as:

- Package name (eg,
yourname/your-project
) - Description
- Author(s) (name and email)
- Minimum stability (eg,
stable
,dev
) - License (eg,
MIT
,proprietary
) - Whether to require any dependencies now (you can search and add packages)
- Whether to require any dev dependencies now (like testing tools)
Once you're done, Composer generates a composer.json
file in your current directory based on your answers.
Example Output
After running composer init
and answering the prompts, you might end up with a composer.json
like this:

{ "name": "john/my-app", "description": "A small PHP project", "type": "project", "license": "MIT", "authors": [ { "name": "John Doe", "email": "john@example.com" } ], "require": { "monolog/monolog": "^2.0" }, "require-dev": { "phpunit/phpunit": "^9.0" }, "autoload": { "psr-4": { "MyApp\\": "src/" } } }
Key Notes
- You don't have to use
composer init
— you can also createcomposer.json
manually. - If you already have a
composer.json
, runningcomposer init
again won't overwrite it unless you do so manually. - After
composer.json
is created, you runcomposer install
to download the listed dependencies.
When to Use It
Use composer init
when:
- Starting a new PHP project
- You want a guided way to set up your
composer.json
- You need to define dependencies and autoloading from the start
? Tip: You can skip the interactive prompts using flags like
--no-interaction
if you're scripting or automating setup.
Basically, composer init
is the easiest way to bootstrap your project's dependency configuration in PHP.
The above is the detailed content of What does composer init do?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

Hot AI Tools

Undress AI Tool
Undress images for free

Undresser.AI Undress
AI-powered app for creating realistic nude photos

AI Clothes Remover
Online AI tool for removing clothes from photos.

Clothoff.io
AI clothes remover

Video Face Swap
Swap faces in any video effortlessly with our completely free AI face swap tool!

Hot Article

Hot Tools

Notepad++7.3.1
Easy-to-use and free code editor

SublimeText3 Chinese version
Chinese version, very easy to use

Zend Studio 13.0.1
Powerful PHP integrated development environment

Dreamweaver CS6
Visual web development tools

SublimeText3 Mac version
God-level code editing software (SublimeText3)

Hot Topics

When using Composer in a production environment, you need to pay attention to safety, stability and performance. 1. Use composerinstall-no-dev to reduce unnecessary development dependencies and reduce online environment risks; 2. Always submit and rely on composer.lock files to ensure version consistency, and avoid using updates during deployment; 3. Optional configuration platform-check=false ignores platform differences warnings, which is suitable for building packaging scenarios; 4. Enable APCU to accelerate automatic loading to improve performance, especially suitable for high concurrency services, while paying attention to namespace uniqueness to avoid cache conflicts.

To check whether Composer is installed correctly, first run the composer--version command to view the version information. If the version number is displayed, it means that it is installed. Secondly, use the composerdiagnose command to detect configuration problems and ensure that the environment variables and permissions are normal. Finally, try to verify the functional integrity through the composerrequiremonolog/monolog installation package. If the vendor directory is successfully created and the dependency is downloaded, it means that Composer is fully available. If the above steps fail, you may need to check whether PHP has been installed globally or adjusted system path settings.

Tomaintainapplicationsecurity,keepdependenciesupdatedusingautomatedtoolslikeDependabot,Renovate,orSnyktotrackandapplyupdates.1)UsethesetoolstoautomatedependencychecksandintegratewithCI/CDpipelinesforreal-timealertsandmergerestrictions.2)Regularlyscan

To install the Composer plug-in, please first confirm that Composer is installed and the composer.json file exists, and then follow the following steps: 1. Make sure that Composer has been installed and created composer.json; 2. Search and copy the required plug-in name on Packagist; 3. Use the composerrequirequire command to install the plug-in, such as composerrequiredealerdirect/phpcodesniffer-composer-installer; 4. Verify whether the plug-in is effective and check compatibility and configuration. Follow these steps to correctly install the Composer plug-in.

Stabilityflagslike@dev,@alpha,@beta,and@stableindicatesoftwarematurity.1)@devmeansearlydevelopmentwithpossiblebreakingchanges.2)@alphaisanunstableearlytestingphase.3)@betaindicatesimprovedfunctionalitybutwithpotentialbugs.4)@stablemeansproduction-rea

You can make Composer use a specific PHP version by specifying PHP binary files, using version management tools, or configuring composer.json. 1. In Unix-like systems, you can set an alias or export the COMPOSER_PHP environment variable to directly specify the PHP binary file; 2. Use tools such as phpenv or brew to switch the PHP version to achieve global or project-level version control; 3. Configure the platform.php field in composer.json to declare the PHP version required for the project to ensure that the dependency check is correct; 4. Windows users can call the specified PHP version by modifying the PATH environment variable or creating a batch script to call the specified PHP version.

To add a custom repository to the Composer configuration, edit the composer.json file in the project and specify the repository information under the "repositories" key. The specific steps are as follows: 1. Determine the repository type, such as VCS (Git, SVN, etc.), Composer, PEAR or Package; 2. Add the "repositories" block in composer.json and fill in the repository type and URL. For example, when using a VCS-type Git repository, the format is {"type":"vcs","url":"https

ToupdateyourpackageonPackagist,firstensureyourcomposer.jsonisupdatedwiththecorrectversion,dependencies,andmetadata,thencommitandpushchangestoyourrepository.1.Updatecomposer.jsonwithnecessarychangessuchasversion,dependencies,ormetadataandcommitit.2.Ta
