The present invention is directed to the automatic configuration of portal composite applications. A method for automatic configuration of a portal composite application including a portal composite application infrastructure, wherein configuration parameters are managed within a composite application interface of the portal, which interface defines a runtime behavior of instances of the composite application within a predetermined range of variability, and wherein each parameter defines a respective point of variability, includes: storing a collection of parameter values for each of the points of variability; defining a functional component cooperating with the composite application and having read access to the collection of parameter values; invoking the functional component after or at instantiation time of the composite application, yielding a configuration parameter value; including the configuration parameter value into a control for an instance of the composite application; and automatically configuring the instance of the composite application with the included configuration parameter value.