`vendor_path()`

vendor_path() returns the directory associated with Composer's registered autoloader. Use it when you need the dependency directory itself and want to respect a custom vendor-dir.

Usage

vendor_path();
vendor_path('composer/installed.php');
vendor_path('autoload.php');

In the Webkernel scaffold, the directory is internal/dependencies/ under the application. In a conventional Composer project it is usually vendor/. Neither directory name is hardcoded in the helper.

How it resolves the path

The first call reads the first key of Composer\Autoload\ClassLoader::getRegisteredLoaders(). The result is cached in a static variable for later calls. The helper does not call realpath() and does not reread project configuration on each call.

In a normal application there is one relevant Composer loader. If your process registers several independent Composer loaders, this function follows the first loader in Composer's registered-loader map at the time of the first call. It does not select a loader by the calling class, and later registration changes do not reset the cache.

When to use something else

For a particular package's location, use Composer\InstalledVersions::getInstallPath() or webkernel_package(). Packages can use custom install paths or symlinks, so appending a package name to the vendor directory is not a reliable general package-location strategy.

For application-owned files, use base_path(). An existing vendor_path() function keeps its own implementation because Lifecycle only defines missing functions.

Next step

Read webkernel_package() for package-aware path resolution.