How to create and publish your own packages on Packagist

What Is Packagist?

Packagist.org is the official package repository for Composer, PHP’s dependency manager. It’s where packages are published so anyone can install them easily using:

composer require yourusername/yourpackage

Requirements

Before you start, you’ll need:

• A GitHub account
• A Packagist.org account
• PHP installed
• Composer installed (composer --version to check)
• Basic understanding of PHP namespaces and classes

Step 1 — Basic Package Structure

Create a folder for your project:

mkdir MyPackage
cd MyPackage

Inside it, create this structure:

MyPackage/
├── src/
│   └── Greeting.php
├── composer.json
└── README.md

Example of src/Greeting.php

<?php

namespace MyPackage;

class Greeting
{
    public static function hello($name)
    {
        return "Hello, {$name}!";
    }
}

Step 2 — Create the composer.json File

In the root directory, create a file named composer.json with this content:

{
    "name": "yourusername/my-package",
    "description": "A simple greeting package in PHP",
    "type": "library",
    "license": "MIT",
    "autoload": {
        "psr-4": {
            "MyPackage\\": "src/"
        }
    },
    "authors": [
        {
            "name": "Your Name",
            "email": "[e-mail]"
        }
    ],
    "require": {}
}

⚠️ The "name" field must follow the pattern username/package, matching your GitHub username.

Step 3 — Test the Autoload Locally

Before publishing, test the autoload to make sure everything works.

Run:

composer install

Then create a test.php file:

<?php

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use MyPackage\Greeting;

echo Greeting::hello("MyPackage");

Run:

php test.php

Expected output:

Hello, MyPackage!

Step 4 — Push the Project to GitHub

1. Create a public repository on GitHub (e.g., my-package).

2. Initialize the local repository:

git init
git add .
git commit -m "First version of the package"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://github.com/yourusername/my-package.git
git push -u origin main

3. Create a version tag (Packagist uses tags to detect releases):

git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0

Step 5 — Publish on Packagist

1. Go to https://packagist.org/packages/submit

2. Paste your GitHub repository URL, for example:

https://github.com/yourusername/my-package

3. Click Check, then Submit.

Done 🎉 — your package is now public on Packagist!

Step 6 — Enable Automatic Updates via GitHub Hook

After publishing, you can enable automatic updates:

• Go to your package page on Packagist.
• Click “Maintain”.
• Under “GitHub Hook”, click “Connect” to allow Packagist to auto-update your package whenever you push changes to GitHub.

Step 7 — Using Your Package in Another Project

In any other PHP project, just run:

composer require yourusername/my-package

And use it like this:

use MyPackage\Greeting;

echo Greeting::hello("World");

Final Tips

• Use semantic versioning (semver) (v1.0.0, v1.1.0, v2.0.0, etc.)
• Keep a clear README.md explaining usage.
• Add unit tests with PHPUnit.
• Use GitHub Actions for automated testing.