Composer Platform Package Installer

The Composer Platform Package Installer is a powerful plugin for platform-aware distribution URL resolution.

The core behavior is simple:

• Your package declares platform-specific artifact URLs or URL templates in composer.json
• At install time, the plugin picks the best URL for the current OS/architecture
• It resolves placeholders (built-in {version} plus optional custom variables)
• It tells Composer to download and install the package from that resolved URL

Requirements

• PHP 8.1+
• Composer 2+

Installation

Install the plugin using Composer:

composer require codewithkyrian/platform-package-installer

Then change your package type to platform-package in composer.json:

{
  "name": "org/your-platform-package",
  "type": "platform-package",
  "require": {
    "codewithkyrian/platform-package-installer": "^2.0"
  }
}

Core Configuration

All core behavior is configured in composer.json under extra.artifacts.

Legacy extra.platform-urls is still supported for backward compatibility, but is deprecated.

Format A: Simple (no custom variables)

Use this when:

• you are using direct artifact URLs with no placeholders, or
• {version} is the only placeholder you need.

{
  "extra": {
    "artifacts": {
      "darwin-arm64": "https://cdn.example.com/pkg/{version}/darwin-arm64.zip",
      "linux-x86_64": "https://cdn.example.com/pkg/{version}/linux-x86_64.tar.gz",
      "all": "https://cdn.example.com/pkg/{version}/universal.zip"
    }
  }
}

Format B: Extended (custom variables + defaults)

Use this when templates include additional placeholders beyond {version}.

{
  "extra": {
    "artifacts": {
      "urls": {
        "darwin-arm64": "https://cdn.example.com/pkg/{version}/variant-{runtime}/darwin-arm64.zip",
        "linux-x86_64": "https://cdn.example.com/pkg/{version}/variant-{runtime}/linux-x86_64.tar.gz"
      },
      "vars": {
        "runtime": "gpu"
      }
    }
  }
}

Application-Level Variable Overrides

Consumers of your platform package can override variables from their root project:

{
  "extra": {
    "platform-packages": {
      "org/your-platform-package": {
        "runtime": "cpu"
      }
    }
  }
}

Variable precedence:

1. Root app override (extra.platform-packages.<package-name>)
2. Package default (extra.artifacts.vars)
3. Built-in {version} (always provided by plugin)

Placeholder Behavior

• {version} is built in and always available
• Any {name} placeholder can be used
• Unresolved placeholders cause artifact URL resolution to fail for that package
• If override variables resolve to a URL that does not exist, the plugin retries with package default variables
• On failure, Composer falls back to the package's original dist configuration

Platform Matching

The plugin matches the current machine against keys in artifacts:

• OS-only keys: linux, darwin, windows, raspberrypi
• OS + architecture keys: darwin-arm64, linux-x86_64, windows-32, windows-64, etc.
• all as final fallback

More specific matches are preferred over generic ones.

Optional Helper: Generate URLs Command

platform:generate-urls is a helper to generate artifact URL entries from a template.

composer platform:generate-urls --dist-type=github --repo-path=vendor/repo --platforms=linux-x86_64 --platforms=darwin-arm64

You can also provide platforms as a comma-separated list:

composer platform:generate-urls --dist-type=github --repo-path=vendor/repo --platforms=linux-x86_64,darwin-arm64,windows-x86_64

Or with a custom URL template:

composer platform:generate-urls --dist-type=https://cdn.example.com/vendor/repo/release-{version}-{platform}.{ext} --platforms=linux-x86_64,darwin-arm64

Command options:

• --platforms platform identifiers (repeat the flag or use comma-separated values)
• --dist-type github, gitlab, huggingface, or custom template
• --repo-path repository path for built-in templates
• --extension force archive extension

The command writes generated URLs into extra.artifacts.

Testing

Run tests with:

composer test

The test suite includes:

• unit tests for matching, templating, and generation logic
• integration tests that run real composer install flows

License

MIT. See LICENSE.