How to start a new project with Composer?
To start a new project, first run composer init to initialize the project and configure the composer.json file, then enter the project name, description, author, stability, license and other information according to the prompts. Then use composer require to add the required dependencies such as monolog/monolog, or use composer create-project to create framework-based applications such as Laravel. Then make sure that the project contains composer.json, composer.lock and vendor/director, and introduce vendor/autoload.php in index.php to enable automatic loading. Set PSR-4 automatic loading such as "MyApp\": "src/", then run composer dump-autoload to update the autoloader, and finally execute composer install the dependency, submit composer.json and composer.lock to version control, and at the same time, add vendor/add.gitignore to avoid submitting dependency files, and complete project initialization.
Starting a new project with Composer is straightforward and sets up a solid foundation for managing dependencies in PHP projects. Here's how to do it step by step.

✅ Initialize a New Project
Open your terminal and navigate to your project directory. Run:
composer init
This command starts an interactive wizard that helps you set up your composer.json
file.

You'll be asked to provide:
- Project name (eg,
your-username/project-name
) - Description
- Author (usually in format
Name <email>
) - Minimum stability (default is
stable
) - License (eg,
MIT
) - Whether to require any dependencies now
Answer each prompt. You can press Enter to accept defaults.

? Add Dependencies
Even if you skip adding packages during init
, you can add them later. For example:
composer requires monolog/monolog
This installs the Monolog library and updates both composer.json
and composer.lock
.
If you're building a framework-based app (like Laravel or Symfony), you might instead use a project installer:
composer create-project laravel/laravel my-new-app
This creates a new directory my-new-app
with the Laravel framework already installed.
?️ Project Structure Basics
After initializing, your project should have:
-
composer.json
– your project config and dependencies -
composer.lock
– exact versions of installed packages (generated after install) -
vendor/
directory – where dependencies are installed (aftercomposer install
)
If you're starting from scratch, create your main PHP file (eg, index.php
) and autoload classes using Composer:
require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';
Composer automatically sets up PSR-4 or PSR-0 autoloading if you define it in composer.json
. Example:
"autoload": { "psr-4": { "MyApp\\": "src/" } }
Then run:
composer dump-autoload
To regenerate the autoloader (especially useful during development).
? Final Steps
- Run
composer install
to install dependencies (useful when cloning the project later). - Commit
composer.json
andcomposer.lock
to version control (eg, Git). - Add
vendor/
to.gitignore
to avoid committing dependencies.
That's it. You've got a Composer-powered PHP project up and running. From here, add packages as needed and organize your code with proper autoloading.
Basically just init
, require
, and autoload
— and you're good to go.
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