diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c0057a53e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+# Never bake local credentials or environment config into the image
+config.php
+.env
+
+# Git history
+.git
+.gitignore
+
+# Local dev/test artifacts
+/uploads/*
+!/uploads/.htaccess
+/var/*
+!/var/.htaccess
+
+# Composer dev cache
+vendor/
+
+# Docker files themselves
+Dockerfile
+docker-compose*.yaml
+.dockerignore
+ops/docker-compose*.yaml
+ops/.env-example
+up.sh
+
+# IDE and OS files
+.DS_Store
+*.code-workspace
+.vscode/
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index b5d2236a57..c4507e3de0 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -38,3 +38,8 @@ var/*
 
 # Ignore node_modules folder
 node_modules
+
+.phpactor.json
+
+# Docker environment — never commit real credentials
+.env
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b1c7f6ec4e..0b87e49414 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -22,6 +22,41 @@ For installation instructions, visit [Getting Started: Installing Gibbon](https:
 
 For support visit [ask.gibbonedu.org](https://ask.gibbonedu.org) or see [our documentation](https://docs.gibbonedu.org).
 
+## Docker Development Setup
+
+This Docker setup allows developers to run a local development setup so contributors can run Gibbon without manually installing and configuring PHP, Apache, and MySQL on their machine.
+
+## Prerequisites
+
+- Install [Docker Desktop](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop)
+
+## Start The Development Environment
+
+From the project root, run:
+
+```bash
+./up.sh
+```
+
+This script will:
+- Check `.env` file exists and create it if not.
+- Check that Docker Desktop is installed and running
+- Build and start the Gibbon development server container
+
+Gibbon will be available at **http://localhost:8080**
+
+## Useful Commands
+
+Stop the development environment and remove volumes:
+```bash
+./up.sh down
+```
+
+View live container logs:
+```bash
+./up.sh logs
+```
+
 ## Cutting Edge
 If you want to run the latest version of Gibbon, prerelease, you can get the source from our [GitHub repository](https://github.com/GibbonEdu/core). Remember, though, it is not stable, and you may lose data. This is not for the faint of heart.
 
diff --git a/ops/.env-example b/ops/.env-example
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d46ac04b80
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ops/.env-example
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# ============================================================
+# Gibbon Docker Environment Configuration
+# ============================================================
+# Copy this file to .env and adjust values before running.
+# The up.sh helper will auto-create .env from this file if needed.
+# The .env file is automatically read by Docker Compose.
+# ============================================================
+
+## PHP version used to build the app image. Examples: 8.2, 8.3
+PHP_VERSION=8.3
+
+## MySQL image version
+MYSQL_VERSION=8.0
+
+## Database credentials — change these before use
+MYSQL_DATABASE=gibbon
+MYSQL_USER=gibbon
+MYSQL_PASSWORD=change_me
+MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=change_me
+
+## Docker Compose file selection — lets you run `docker compose` commands
+COMPOSE_FILE=ops/docker-compose.yaml:ops/docker-compose.dev.yaml
diff --git a/ops/Dockerfile b/ops/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..74b356a139
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ops/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+# PHP_VERSION can be overridden at build time via --build-arg or docker-compose.yaml
+ARG PHP_VERSION=8.3
+FROM php:${PHP_VERSION}-apache
+
+# 1. Install System Dependencies
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
+    unzip \
+    libicu-dev \
+    libzip-dev \
+    libpng-dev \
+    libjpeg-dev \
+    libfreetype6-dev \
+    libxml2-dev \
+    libcurl4-openssl-dev \
+    libonig-dev \
+    gettext \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+# 2. Install PHP Extensions
+RUN docker-php-ext-configure gd --with-freetype --with-jpeg \
+    && docker-php-ext-install -j"$(nproc)" \
+    mysqli \
+    pdo_mysql \
+    gd \
+    zip \
+    intl \
+    xml \
+    gettext \
+    bcmath \
+    curl \
+    mbstring
+
+# Enable Apache mod_rewrite
+RUN a2enmod rewrite \
+    && sed -i 's/AllowOverride None/AllowOverride All/g' /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
+
+# 3. Install Composer
+COPY --from=composer:2 /usr/bin/composer /usr/bin/composer
+
+WORKDIR /var/www/html
+
+# Steps 4–7 are intentionally commented out for the dev environment.
+
+# # 4. Copy application source from local context
+# COPY . .
+
+# # 5. Install PHP Dependencies
+# RUN composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader --no-interaction
+
+# # 6. Configure PHP for Gibbon
+# # Path is relative to build context (project root), so ops/php/gibbon.ini
+# COPY ops/php/gibbon.ini /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/gibbon.ini
+
+# # 7. Permissions
+# RUN chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html \
+#     && find /var/www/html -not -path "*/vendor/*" -type d -exec chmod 755 {} + \
+#     && find /var/www/html -not -path "*/vendor/*" -type f -exec chmod 644 {} +
+
+EXPOSE 80
+
+CMD ["apache2-foreground"]
diff --git a/ops/docker-compose.dev.yaml b/ops/docker-compose.dev.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..579bb0473c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ops/docker-compose.dev.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+services:
+    app:
+        ports:
+            - "8080:80"
+        volumes:
+            ## Mount project root so live edits are immediately reflected without rebuilding the image.
+            - .:/var/www/html
+            ## Mount PHP config so values can be changed without an image rebuild.
+            - ./ops/php/gibbon.ini:/usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/gibbon.ini:ro
diff --git a/ops/docker-compose.yaml b/ops/docker-compose.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..506cd424fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ops/docker-compose.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+name: gibbon
+
+services:
+    app:
+        build:
+            # Context is project root so COPY . . captures all source code
+            context: .
+            # Path to Dockerfile is relative to the build context (project root)
+            dockerfile: ops/Dockerfile
+            args:
+                PHP_VERSION: ${PHP_VERSION:-8.3}
+        container_name: gibbon_app
+        depends_on:
+            db:
+                condition: service_healthy
+        restart: unless-stopped
+
+    db:
+        image: mysql:${MYSQL_VERSION:-8.0}
+        container_name: gibbon_db
+
+        # Gibbon Docker Environment Variables
+        environment:
+            # MySQL database name (default: gibbon)
+            - MYSQL_DATABASE=${MYSQL_DATABASE:-gibbon}
+            # MySQL application user credentials
+            - MYSQL_USER=${MYSQL_USER:-gibbon}
+            - MYSQL_PASSWORD=${MYSQL_PASSWORD:?MYSQL_PASSWORD is not set. Create .env from ops/.env-example and set a password.}
+            # MySQL root password — keep this strong in production
+            - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD:?MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD is not set. Create .env from ops/.env-example and set a password.}
+        volumes:
+            - gibbon_db_data:/var/lib/mysql
+        # Native password plugin ensures PHP can connect easily
+        command: --default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password
+        healthcheck:
+            test: ["CMD", "mysqladmin", "ping", "-h", "localhost", "-u", "root", "-p${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}"]
+            interval: 10s
+            timeout: 5s
+            retries: 5
+            start_period: 30s
+        restart: unless-stopped
+
+volumes:
+    gibbon_db_data:
diff --git a/ops/php/gibbon.ini b/ops/php/gibbon.ini
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..43d27856db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ops/php/gibbon.ini
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+; ============================================================
+; Gibbon PHP Configuration
+; ============================================================
+; This file is mounted into the container at: /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/gibbon.ini
+; For development, edit values here and restart the container
+; ============================================================
+
+upload_max_filesize = 50M
+post_max_size       = 50M
+max_input_vars      = 8000
+memory_limit        = 256M
+max_file_uploads    = 20
+allow_url_fopen     = On
+session.gc_maxlifetime = 1200
diff --git a/up.sh b/up.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..d634600360
--- /dev/null
+++ b/up.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+#=============================================================
+# Gibbon Local Development — Docker helper
+# =============================================================
+# Usage:
+#   ./up.sh          Start (or rebuild) the dev environment
+#   ./up.sh down     Stop containers and remove volumes (resets DB)
+#   ./up.sh logs     Tail live logs from all containers
+# =============================================================
+set -euo pipefail
+
+## Ensure the script is always run from the project root
+if [ ! -f "ops/docker-compose.yaml" ]; then
+    echo "Error: Run this script from the project root (where up.sh lives)."
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+## Ensure the local environment file exists
+if [ ! -f ".env" ]; then
+    if [ ! -f "ops/.env-example" ]; then
+        echo "Error: .env was not found and ops/.env-example is missing."
+        exit 1
+    fi
+
+    cp ops/.env-example .env
+    echo "Created .env from ops/.env-example"
+    echo "Review .env to customize local settings if needed."
+fi
+
+## Ensure Docker is installed and the daemon is running
+if ! command -v docker >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    echo "Error: Docker is not installed or not available on PATH."
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+if ! docker info >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    echo "Error: Docker is not running. Start Docker Desktop and try again."
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+DOCKER_COMPOSE="docker compose --project-directory ."
+
+case "${1:-up}" in
+    up)
+        echo "Starting Gibbon dev environment..."
+        ${DOCKER_COMPOSE} build app db
+        ${DOCKER_COMPOSE} up -d
+        echo "Installing Composer dependencies (this may take a minute on first run)..."
+        ${DOCKER_COMPOSE} exec -T app composer install
+        echo ""
+        echo "Gibbon is running at: http://localhost:8080"
+        echo "To follow logs:       ./up.sh logs"
+        ;;
+    logs)
+        docker compose logs -f
+        ;;
+    *)
+        echo "Usage: $0 [up|down|logs]"
+        exit 1
+        ;;
+esac