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Composer Integration & Publishing

When to Use

Use Composer packaging when you need to distribute recipes with version management and dependency resolution.

Publish recipes as Composer packages for distribution and versioning.

Steps: Package, Publish and Install a Recipe

  1. Create composer.json — Declare recipe package type 

    {
  "name": "myorg/my-recipe",
  "type": "drupal-recipe",
  "description": "My reusable recipe",
  "require": {
    "drupal/core": "^10.3 || ^11"
  }
}

  2. Configure installer-paths — Recipe installer places recipes correctly 

    {
  "extra": {
    "installer-paths": {
      "recipes/{$name}": ["type:drupal-recipe"]
    }
  }
}

  3. Publish to repository — Push to Packagist or private repo 

    git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0
# Submit to packagist.org or add to private repositories

  4. Install via Composer — Require recipe in project 

    composer require myorg/my-recipe
# Installs to recipes/my-recipe/

  5. Apply installed recipe — Use Drush or core script 

    drush recipe recipes/my-recipe

Decision Points: Dependencies, Versioning and Distribution

At this step... If... Then...
Recipe needs contrib modules Dependencies outside core Add to require in composer.json
Recipe version matters Semantic versioning needed Use Git tags; Composer handles versions
Recipe is organization-internal Not public Use private Packagist or artifact repository
Recipe installer missing Custom Composer setup Ensure drupal-recipe type has installer configured

Common Mistakes

  • Forgetting type: drupal-recipe → Composer treats as library; doesn't install to recipes directory
  • Not declaring module dependencies → Modules must be installed before recipe applies; declare in composer.json
  • Hardcoding version constraints → Use caret/tilde ranges for flexibility; ^10.3 || ^11 for Drupal 11 compatibility
  • Assuming recipes update → Recipes are apply-once; version bumps don't re-apply; communicate to users
  • Not testing clean install → Always test recipe on vanilla Drupal before publishing

See Also