🧩 IsPackageDev

Checks whether the specified package is declared in the require-dev section of composer.json, i.e. whether it is a development dependency.

When to use

Use this when you need to distinguish whether a package is a production dependency or only a development-time dependency. For example, deciding whether to remove it before packaging for release, or excluding development dependencies when generating a deployment manifest. It reads composer.json directly and does not execute Composer commands.

Signature

func (c *Composer) IsPackageDev(packageName string) (bool, error)

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
packageName	string	The package name to check, e.g. phpunit/phpunit

Return value

Return value	Type	Description
First return value	bool	Returns true if the package is in require-dev, otherwise false
Second return value	error	Returned when reading or parsing composer.json fails

Example

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"log"

	"github.com/scagogogo/composer-skills/pkg/composer"
)

func main() {
	comp, err := composer.New(composer.DefaultOptions())
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Initialization failed: %v", err)
	}

	isDev, err := comp.IsPackageDev("phpunit/phpunit")
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Check failed: %v", err)
	}
	if isDev {
		fmt.Println("phpunit/phpunit is a dev dependency 🧪")
	} else {
		fmt.Println("phpunit/phpunit is not a dev dependency 📦")
	}
}

Advanced

• To only check whether a package is installed (without distinguishing dev), use IsPackageInstalled.
• To read the complete require-dev list, use ReadComposerJson.
• To get a summary of the project's development dependencies, use GetProjectDependencies.