Composites are compressed files that contain the definitions of the assets and their dependencies you build in a development environment. Each composite defines assets from one webMethods runtime type. You build the assets into the composite file during the build process and store them in a repository for deployment.

Deployer can use the assets from several different composites (and webMethods runtime types) to construct a deployment set. The assets in each composite file retain the same relationships they share in the development environment.

The build process that creates the composites for your assets also creates an Asset Composite Definition Language (ACDL) descriptor (descriptor) for each composite. The descriptor is an XML schema that serves as a manifest for each composite and describes all of the assets included in the composite file. Deployer reads the descriptor to determine which assets are present in each composite.