diff --git a/.docker/Dockerfile b/.docker/Dockerfile
index 40a9bc44af7c..738aa7564415 100644
--- a/.docker/Dockerfile
+++ b/.docker/Dockerfile
@@ -1,19 +1,48 @@
-FROM php:8.2-cli
+FROM php:8.2-cli-alpine
 
-RUN apt-get update && \
-    apt-get install -y git default-jre-headless
+LABEL maintainer="PHP Documentation Team <doc@php.net>"
+LABEL description="Image for building and serving PHP documentation (php-chunked-xhtml format)"
 
-WORKDIR /var/www
+ENV LANG=C.UTF-8 \
+    LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 \
+    DOC_DIR=/var/www \
+    PHD_DIR=/opt/phd
 
-ADD https://api.github.com/repos/php/phd/git/refs/heads/master version-phd.json
-ADD https://api.github.com/repos/php/doc-base/git/refs/heads/master version-doc-base.json
+# 🔧 PhD dependencies
+RUN apk add --no-cache \
+    git \
+    icu-dev \
+    libxml2-dev \
+    libxslt-dev \
+    gettext \
+    autoconf \
+    g++ \
+    pkgconfig \
+ && docker-php-ext-install intl xsl
 
-RUN git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/php/phd.git &&  \
-    git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/php/doc-base.git
+# 📦 Install Composer
+RUN curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
 
-RUN echo 'memory_limit = 512M' >> /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/local.ini
+# Install PhD and the PHP package (stable compatible version --addpackage)
+RUN git clone https://github.com/php/phd.git "$PHD_DIR" \
+ && cd "$PHD_DIR" \
+ && git checkout c3e2d8c \
+ && git clone https://github.com/php/phd-php.git "$PHD_DIR/phpdotnet/phd/Package/PHP" \
+ && composer install --no-dev --no-progress --prefer-dist || true
 
-ENV FORMAT=xhtml
+WORKDIR $DOC_DIR
 
-CMD php doc-base/configure.php --disable-segfault-error && \
-    php phd/render.php --docbook doc-base/.manual.xml --output=/var/www/en/output --package PHP --format ${FORMAT}
+# Default formats and package
+ENV FORMAT=php-chunked-xhtml
+ENV PACKAGE=PHP
+
+# Grant full permissions to /var/www (useful on Windows/WSL2)
+RUN mkdir -p /var/www/output && chmod -R 777 /var/www
+
+# Entry script
+COPY .docker/entrypoint.sh /usr/local/bin/entrypoint.sh
+RUN sed -i 's/\r$//' /usr/local/bin/entrypoint.sh && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/entrypoint.sh
+
+EXPOSE 8000
+RUN chmod -R 777 /var/www
+ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/bin/entrypoint.sh"]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.docker/entrypoint.sh b/.docker/entrypoint.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..a4c128a9bfbd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.docker/entrypoint.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# POSIX-compliant entrypoint for building PHP documentation
+# Fully compatible with Linux, Alpine, and macOS environments
+
+set -e
+
+LANGUAGE=${1:-en}
+FORMAT=${2:-xhtml}
+PACKAGE=${PACKAGE:-PHP}
+MANUAL_PATH="/var/www/$LANGUAGE/.manual.xml"
+
+echo "Language: $LANGUAGE"
+echo "Format:   $FORMAT"
+echo "Docbook:  $MANUAL_PATH"
+
+# Add the PHP package to the include_path for PhD.
+export PHP_INCLUDE_PATH="$PHD_DIR/phpdotnet/phd/Package:$PHD_DIR/phpdotnet/phd/Package/PHP:$PHP_INCLUDE_PATH"
+
+# 🧹 Clean if necessary
+if [ -f "$MANUAL_PATH" ]; then
+  echo "🧹 Removing old .manual.xml..."
+  rm -f "$MANUAL_PATH" || true
+fi
+
+echo "ℹ️ Generating .manual.xml for $LANGUAGE..."
+cd /var/www/doc-base
+php configure.php \
+  --disable-segfault-error \
+  --basedir="/var/www/doc-base" \
+  --output="$MANUAL_PATH" \
+  --lang="$LANGUAGE"
+
+if [ ! -f "$MANUAL_PATH" ]; then
+  echo "❌ Failed to generate $MANUAL_PATH"
+  exit 1
+fi
+echo "✅ Generated $MANUAL_PATH"
+
+# Verify PHP package presence
+if [ ! -d "$PHD_DIR/phpdotnet/phd/Package/PHP" ]; then
+  echo "❌ PHP package not found in $PHD_DIR/phpdotnet/phd/Package/PHP"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# Normalize Windows CRLF endings and adjust doc-base paths
+echo "🩹 Patching entity paths to use doc-base…"
+tr -d '\r' < "$MANUAL_PATH" > "$MANUAL_PATH.clean" && mv "$MANUAL_PATH.clean" "$MANUAL_PATH"
+sed -i "s#/var/www/$LANGUAGE/entities/#/var/www/doc-base/entities/#g" "$MANUAL_PATH"
+sed -i "s#/var/www/$LANGUAGE/version.xml#/var/www/doc-base/version.xml#g" "$MANUAL_PATH"
+sed -i "s#/var/www/$LANGUAGE/sources.xml#/var/www/doc-base/sources.xml#g" "$MANUAL_PATH"
+head -n 25 "$MANUAL_PATH"
+
+# 🧩 Include the PHP package for PhD
+export PHP_INCLUDE_PATH="$PHD_DIR/phpdotnet/phd/Package:$PHD_DIR/phpdotnet/phd/Package/PHP:$PHP_INCLUDE_PATH"
+
+cd /var/www/$LANGUAGE
+
+# 🏗️ Render the documentation
+php -d include_path="$PHP_INCLUDE_PATH" \
+  "$PHD_DIR/render.php" \
+  --docbook "$MANUAL_PATH" \
+  --package "$PACKAGE" \
+  --format "$FORMAT"
+
+# 🔎 Locate the output directory
+OUTDIR=""
+for d in php-chunked-xhtml xhtml phpweb php; do
+  if [ -d "/var/www/$LANGUAGE/output/$d" ]; then
+    OUTDIR="/var/www/$LANGUAGE/output/$d"
+    break
+  fi
+done
+
+if [ -d "$OUTDIR" ]; then
+  echo "✅ Build complete: $OUTDIR"
+  echo "View the documentation on http://localhost:8000"
+else
+  echo "❌ No output directory found in /var/www/$LANGUAGE/output/"
+  ls -R "/var/www/$LANGUAGE/output" || true
+  exit 1
+fi
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7aaff34e6b5f..5d4fcb012481 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -31,6 +31,50 @@ already exist.
 You can also build the `web` version of the documentation with `make php`
 and the output will be placed in output/php-web
 
+### 🐋 Building with Docker Compose (alternative modern setup)
+
+A `compose.yaml` file is available for contributors who prefer a simple,
+cross-platform Docker workflow instead of `make`.
+
+It builds and serves the PHP manual locally in any translation
+(English by default, or another language via `LANGUAGE`).
+
+#### Prerequisites
+
+- Docker ≥ 24 and Docker Compose ([install guide](https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/))
+- Local clone structure:
+```
+php-doc/
+├─ doc-base/ ← common build files, scripts, entities, configure.php
+├─ doc-en/ ← English manual (contains this Docker setup)
+└─ doc-fr/ ← French manual or your official language repository (doc-es, doc-ja...)
+```
+
+#### Usage
+
+From inside `php-doc/doc-en/`:
+
+```bash
+# Default build (English)
+docker compose up --build
+```
+To build another translation:
+**Linux / macOS**
+```
+LANGUAGE=fr docker compose up --build
+```
+**Windows PowerShell**
+```bash
+$env:LANGUAGE="fr"; docker compose up --build
+
+Remove-Item Env:LANGUAGE # Revert back to English
+```
+The process will:
+
+1. Build a minimal PHP 8.2 environment with PhD.
+2. Generate `.manual.xml` and render the manual in HTML (php-chunked-xhtml).
+3. Start a local PHP web server on http://localhost:8000 where you can view the documentation.
+
 ## Translations
 
 For the translations of this documentation, see:
diff --git a/compose.yaml b/compose.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e2d477f32719
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compose.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+services:
+  phpdoc:
+    build:
+      dockerfile: .docker/Dockerfile
+    container_name: phpdoc-builder
+    working_dir: /var/www
+    user: "0:0"
+    volumes:
+      - ../doc-${LANGUAGE:-en}:/var/www/${LANGUAGE:-en}
+      - ../doc-en:/var/www/en
+      - ../doc-base:/var/www/doc-base
+    command: ["${LANGUAGE:-en}", "xhtml"]
+
+  phpdoc-web:
+    image: php:8.2-cli-alpine
+    container_name: phpdoc-web
+    working_dir: /var/www/${LANGUAGE:-en}/output
+    volumes:
+      - ../doc-${LANGUAGE:-en}/output/php-chunked-xhtml:/var/www/${LANGUAGE:-en}/output
+    ports:
+      - "8000:8000"
+    command: ["php", "-S", "0.0.0.0:8000", "-t", "/var/www/${LANGUAGE:-en}/output"]