What is Composer and how does it work?

Composer is a dependency manager for PHP. It allows you to declare libraries your project depends on and manages them for you.\n\nKey files:\n- composer.json: Defines dependencies\n- composer.lock: Locks specific versions\n- vendor/: Contains downloaded packages\n\nBasic commands:\ncomposer install // Install dependencies\ncomposer update // Update dependencies\ncomposer require vendor/package // Add new dependency\n\nAutoloading:\nrequire_once "vendor/autoload.php";\n\nBenefits: Version management, autoloading, easy package installation.