What causes "Package [$name] not found" in octobercms/october?

Verify the exact theme code (Author.Name) on the theme's octobercms.com marketplace page and retry with that code

octobercms/october · error · ApplicationException

Package [$name] not found

Error message

Package [$name] not found

What it means

Thrown by UpdateManager::installTheme() when a theme cannot be resolved to a composer package. findThemeComposerCode() first checks locally (themeManager->findByIdentifier + getComposerCode + getLatestVersion) and then falls back to the update server (requestThemeDetails -> requestServerData('package/detail')). If neither path yields a composer_code, installTheme aborts with 'Package [$name] not found' before composer require ever runs.

Source

Thrown at modules/system/classes/updatemanager/ManagesThemes.php:27

use October\Rain\Filesystem\Zip;
use ApplicationException;

/**
 * ManagesThemes
 *
 * @package october\system
 * @author Alexey Bobkov, Samuel Georges
 */
trait ManagesThemes
{
    /**
     * installTheme using composer
     */
    public function installTheme($name)
    {
        [$package, $version] = $this->findThemeComposerCode($name);
        if (!$package) {
            throw new ApplicationException("Package [$name] not found");
        }

        $composer = ComposerManager::instance();
        $composer->require([$package => $this->getComposerVersionConstraint($version)]);

        // Lock theme
        $themeFolder = strtolower(str_replace('.', '-', System::composerToOctoberCode($package)));
        $this->themeManager->createChildTheme($themeFolder);
        $this->themeManager->performLockOnTheme($themeFolder);
    }

    /**
     * findThemeComposerCode locates a composer code for a plugin
     */
    protected function findThemeComposerCode(string $code): array
    {
        // Local
        if ($this->themeManager->findByIdentifier($code)) {

View on GitHub (pinned to b608633a7e)

Solutions

Verify the exact theme code (Author.Name) on the theme's octobercms.com marketplace page and retry with that code
Check the response of UpdateManager::instance()->requestThemeDetails($name) and confirm the composer_code key is present and non-empty
For private themes, bypass installTheme: add your own composer repository, run composer require vendor/package, then lock the theme from the backend
If the gateway request itself fails, fix network/DNS access to the update server, clear cached update metadata, and retry

Example fix

// before
UpdateManager::instance()->installTheme($name);

// after
$details = UpdateManager::instance()->requestThemeDetails($name);
if (empty($details['composer_code'])) {
    throw new RuntimeException("Theme [{$name}] is not resolvable to a composer package; install it via composer manually.");
}
UpdateManager::instance()->installTheme($name);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

$details = \UpdateManager::instance()->requestThemeDetails($themeName);
if (empty($details['composer_code'])) {
    // do not call installTheme; surface an actionable message or install via composer directly
}

Try / catch

try { \UpdateManager::instance()->installTheme($name); } catch (\ApplicationException $ex) { /* show $ex->getMessage() to the user; log for support */ }

Prevention

Always copy theme codes verbatim from the marketplace product page
For private themes, use composer require from your own repository instead of installTheme
Log the requestThemeDetails response when building install tooling so empty composer_code is visible

When it happens

Trigger: Calling UpdateManager::instance()->installTheme('Author.Theme') where the theme is neither installed locally with a recorded composer code nor returned by the marketplace gateway (details['composer_code'] empty); typo in the theme code; theme removed from the marketplace; gateway unreachable so the remote lookup returns nothing usable.

Common situations: Installing a theme by a code copied from an outdated marketplace URL; private/custom themes never published to the October marketplace; a corporate firewall blocking the update gateway so the details payload comes back empty.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of octobercms/october@b608633a7e (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6b3774c5b1c8f7a4. Report an issue: GitHub.