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What is Dirigent?

Dirigent is an open-source package registry for Composer. Programmers using PHP to develop software can use Dirigent to distribute private packages or mirror packages from external registries, like Packagist.

Why should I use Dirigent?​

A package registry that can be hosted anywhere by anyone can be useful for a number of reasons.

Sharing packages​

Dirigent allows sharing packages across teams, across machines (including DevOps and production servers) and most importantly, across projects, so even a solo developer can use Dirigent to improve their workflow.

Availability​

Most people take the internet for granted, but there are a lot of cases where this simply isn't the case. Think about living in a remote location or a closed facility, where internet is either limited, very expensive or in some cases non-existent.

Luckily, Composer already does a good job of caching previously downloaded packages on your system to mitigate some of these scenarios, but it doesn't solve all of them. Dirigent can serve as a proxy for external registries to save bandwidth when using Composer across multiple workflows or systems. Dirigent can also be installed and configured in a location where internet is generally available before being moved elsewhere.

Are there limitations to using Dirigent?​

Performance​

When using Dirigent to mirror packages from external registries, it does not serve files directly from a web server so it's not necessarily faster than the source registry. Especially when dynamic updates and dist mirroring are enabled, Dirigent might be slower, but gives you full control over the dependencies in return.

If you're looking to speed up your Composer installations, try Velocita.

Can I use Dirigent at my for-profit business?​

Dirigent is released under the FSL-1.1-MIT License, which gives anybody the permission to use Dirigent for non-commercial purposes, including for-profit businesses. The only thing that's not allowed is creating a business model specifically around Dirigent or forks thereof. This limitation expires after 2 years, see our license for the exact details.

We're always looking into moving parts of the code into separate packages with a more permissive grant, feel free to open an issue on GitHub with suggestions.