Composer Patches Laravel Package

title: Recommended Workflows weight: 40

{{< lead text="Common workflows for working with Composer Patches on a team." >}}

Initial setup

The plugin can safely be [installed]({{< relref "../getting-started/installation.md" >}}) as part of initial project setup, even if you don't have any patches to apply right away. A patches.lock.json will still be written, but it will be empty.

Add a patch to your project

1. [Define a patch]({{< relref "defining-patches.md" >}}) in your composer.json or your external patches file (either will work by default, but choose the appropriate place based on how your project is configured).
2. Run [composer patches-relock]({{< relref "commands.md#composer-patches-relock" >}}) to regenerate patches.lock.json with your new patch.
3. Run [composer patches-repatch]({{< relref "commands.md#composer-patches-repatch" >}}) to delete patched dependencies and reinstall them with any defined patches {{< warning title="Running composer patches-repatch will delete data" >}} Ensure that you don't have any unsaved changes in any patched dependencies in your project. {{< /warning >}}
4. If your patch definition was added to composer.json, run composer update --lock to update the content hash in composer.lock.
5. Commit any related changes to your external patches file (if configured), composer.json, composer.lock, and patches.lock.json.

Apply patches added to the project by someone else

If you have an existing copy of the project and you're updating it to include someone else's changes:

1. Pull changes from your project's version control system.
2. Run [composer patches-repatch]({{< relref "commands.md#composer-patches-repatch" >}}) {{< warning title="Running composer patches-repatch will delete data" >}} Ensure that you don't have any unsaved changes in any patched dependencies in your project. {{< /warning >}}

If you're installing the project from scratch:

1. Clone the project
2. Run composer install

Remove a patch

1. Delete the patch definition from your composer.json or external patches file.
2. Run [composer patches-relock]({{< relref "commands.md#composer-patches-relock" >}}) to regenerate patches.lock.json with your new patch.
3. Manually delete the dependency that you removed a patch from (the location of the dependency will vary by project, but a good starting point is to look in the vendor/ directory).
4. Run [composer patches-repatch]({{< relref "commands.md#composer-patches-repatch" >}}) to delete patched dependencies and reinstall them with any defined patches {{< warning title="Running composer patches-repatch will delete data" >}} Ensure that you don't have any unsaved changes in any patched dependencies in your project. {{< /warning >}}
5. If your patch definition was removed from composer.json, run composer update --lock to update the content hash in composer.lock.
6. Commit any related changes to your external patches file (if configured), composer.json, composer.lock, and patches.lock.json.