Composer packages in the package registry

Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate Offering: GitLab.com, Self-managed, GitLab Dedicated Status: Beta
caution
The Composer package registry for GitLab is under development and isn’t ready for production use due to limited functionality. This epic details the remaining work and timelines to make it production ready.

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.

Composer v2.0 is recommended. Composer v1.0 is supported, but it has lower performance when working in groups with very large numbers of packages.

Learn how to build a Composer package.

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 at the project root directory.
  • The Packages feature is enabled in a GitLab repository.
  • The project ID, which is displayed on the project overview page.
  • One of the following token types:

To publish the package with a personal access token:

  • Send a POST request to the Packages API.

    For example, you can use curl: 

    curl --fail-with-body --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>.

To publish the package with a deploy token:

  • Send a POST request to the Packages API.

    For example, you can use curl: 

    curl --fail-with-body --data tag=<tag> --header "Deploy-Token: <deploy-token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/<project_id>/packages/composer"
    • <deploy-token> is your deploy 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 Deploy > 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.

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

    stages:
  - deploy

deploy:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - apk add curl
    - 'curl --fail-with-body --header "Job-Token: $CI_JOB_TOKEN" --data tag=<tag> "${CI_API_V4_URL}/projects/$CI_PROJECT_ID/packages/composer"'
  environment: production

  2. Run the pipeline.

To view the published package, go to Deploy > 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:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Project overview.
  2. Above the file list, select Set up CI/CD. If this button is not available, select CI/CD Configuration and then Edit.
  3. From the Apply a template list, select Composer.
caution
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 400 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 package registry is enabled in the project responsible for publishing the package.
  • The group ID, which is on the group’s home page.
  • One of the following token types:

To install a package:

  1. 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/packages.json

    • 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/packages.json"
    },
    ...
  },
  "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.

  2. Create an auth.json file with your GitLab credentials:

    Using a personal access token: 

    composer config gitlab-token.<DOMAIN-NAME> <personal_access_token>

    Result in the auth.json file: 

    {
  ...
  "gitlab-token": {
    "<DOMAIN-NAME>": "<personal_access_token>",
    ...
  }
}

    Using a deploy token: 

    composer config gitlab-token.<DOMAIN-NAME> <deploy_token_username> <deploy_token>

    Result in the auth.json file: 

    {
  ...
  "gitlab-token": {
    "<DOMAIN-NAME>": {
      "username": "<deploy_token_username>",
      "token": "<deploy_token>",
    ...
  }
}

    Using a CI/CD job token: 

    composer config -- gitlab-token.<DOMAIN-NAME> gitlab-ci-token "${CI_JOB_TOKEN}"

    Result in the auth.json file: 

    {
  ...
  "gitlab-token": {
    "<DOMAIN-NAME>": {
      "username": "gitlab-ci-token",
      "token": "<ci-job-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 api, or <deploy_token> with the scope set to read_package_registry and/or write_package_registry.

  3. 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/packages.json" }
  ],
  "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.

  4. 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>
caution
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 access token stored in a GitLab CI/CD variable or in HashiCorp Vault.

Install from source

You can install from source by pulling the Git repository directly. To do so, either:

SSH access

History
On self-managed GitLab, by default this feature is available. To hide the feature per project, an administrator can disable the feature flag named composer_use_ssh_source_urls. On GitLab.com and GitLab Dedicated, this feature is available.

When you install from source, the composer configures an access to the project’s Git repository. Depending on the project visibility, the access type is different:

You can access the ssh Git URL from a CI/CD job using SSH keys with GitLab CI/CD.

Working with Deploy Tokens

Although Composer packages are accessed at the group level, a group or project deploy token can be used to access them:

  • A group deploy token has access to all packages published to projects in that group or its subgroups.
  • A project deploy token only has access to packages published to that particular project.

Troubleshooting

Caching

To improve performance, Composer caches files related to a package. Composer doesn’t remove data by itself. The cache grows as new packages are installed. If you encounter issues, clear the cache with this command: 

composer clearcache

Authorization requirement when using composer install

Authorization is required for the downloading a package archive endpoint. If you encounter a credentials prompt when you are using composer install, follow the instructions in the install a composer package section to create an auth.json file.

Publish fails with The file composer.json was not found

You might see an error that says The file composer.json was not found.

This issue occurs when configuration requirements for publishing a package are not met.

To resolve the error, commit a composer.json file to the project root directory.

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.