diff --git a/install.sh b/install.sh
index 05ad349..ce1ff35 100755
--- a/install.sh
+++ b/install.sh
@@ -121,8 +121,6 @@ if [ "$DO_INSTALL" = true ]; then
 		build-essential make bear valgrind fish
 		tmux ca-certificates gnupg libfuse2 rsync
 		fonts-symbola fonts-noto fonts-noto-color-emoji
-		# php
-		php-cli php-mysql php-curl php-mbstring php-zip
 	)
 
 	MISSING_PACKAGES=()
diff --git a/scripts/install_php b/scripts/install_php
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..275d4b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/install_php
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Golang install recipe
+# Fetches the latest stable Go release, installs to /usr/local/go,
+# then installs go-based CLI tools.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+set -e
+
+# install the Debian 13 php version
+sudo apt install php-cli php-mysql php-curl php-mbstring php-zip
+
+reload
+
+# install/download composer
+php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
+php -r "if (hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php') === 'c8b085408188070d5f52bcfe4ecfbee5f727afa458b2573b8eaaf77b3419b0bf2768dc67c86944da1544f06fa544fd47') { echo 'Installer verified'.PHP_EOL; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'.PHP_EOL; unlink('composer-setup.php'); exit(1); }"
+php composer-setup.php
+php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
+
+# Move composer bin
+sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
+
+echo ""
+echo "✅ PHP setup complete."