composer/composer · warning · RuntimeException

No binaries found in composer.json or in bin-dir ($binDir)

Error message

No binaries found in composer.json or in bin-dir ($binDir)

What it means

Thrown by ExecCommand::execute() when listing or running binaries and getBinaries(true) returns an empty array — i.e. composer.json defines no `bin` entries and the configured bin-dir contains no executables.

Source

Thrown at src/Composer/Command/ExecCommand.php:83

            'Binary to run: ',
            $binaries,
            '',
            1,
            'Invalid binary name "%s"'
        );

        $input->setArgument('binary', $binaries[$binary]);
    }

    protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output): int
    {
        $composer = $this->requireComposer();
        if ($input->getOption('list') || null === $input->getArgument('binary')) {
            $bins = $this->getBinaries(true);
            if ([] === $bins) {
                $binDir = $composer->getConfig()->get('bin-dir');

                throw new \RuntimeException("No binaries found in composer.json or in bin-dir ($binDir)");
            }

            $this->getIO()->write(
                <<<EOT
<comment>Available binaries:</comment>
EOT
            );

            foreach ($bins as $bin) {
                $this->getIO()->write(
                    <<<EOT
<info>- $bin</info>
EOT
                );
            }

            return 0;
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to 6ffc117740)

Solutions

1. Run `composer install` first to populate vendor/bin with dependency-provided binaries.
2. Check composer.json for a `bin` section; add your executable there if you intend to expose one.
3. Verify the configured bin-dir (config.bin-dir) and look inside it directly.

Example fix

// before
composer exec  # No binaries found
// after
composer install
# or vendor the tool directly
vendor/bin/<tool>

$bins = glob($binDir . '/*');
if (count($bins) === 0) {
    // inform user / skip exec, or ensure composer install was run
    throw new \RuntimeException('No binaries available in ' . $binDir);
}

function hasAvailableBinaries(string $binDir): bool { return count(glob(rtrim($binDir,'/').'/*')) > 0; }

When it happens

Trigger: Running `composer exec` or `composer exec --list` in a project whose composer.json has no `bin` key and whose vendor/bin (or custom bin-dir) is empty.

Common situations: Calling composer exec expecting a project-provided tool that was never declared as a bin, running in a project that only consumes libraries, or running before `composer install` populated the bin-dir.

Related errors

• "%s" is an invalid value'.($validation ? ' ('.$validation.')
• %s is an invalid value'.($validation ? ' ('.$validation.')'
• Not enough arguments (missing: "packages").
• Invalid working directory specified, {workingDir} does not e
• {package} has an invalid bin {bin}, it must not contain ".."

AI-assisted analysis of composer/composer@6ffc117740 (2026-08-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cc49a799a8b27132. Report an issue: GitHub.