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Composer is useful but can be more with plugins, but there are no list about them so this is mine.

hirak/prestissimo

This plugin improve the speed during the downloads on the modules using a parallel system: https://github.com/hirak/prestissimo

sllh/composer-versions-check

Keep the modules updated in your installation can be a boring process but there is a plugin for that: https://github.com/Soullivaneuh/composer-versions-check

pyrech/composer-changelogs

It displays some texts after each Composer update to nicely summarize the modified packages with links to release and compare urls. https://github.com/pyrech/composer-changelogs

pyrech/composer-notifier

It displays desktop notification when Composer finishes install/update commands. https://github.com/pyrech/composer-notifier

Ciao!