diff --git a/src/subsystems/php/translators/composer-json/default.nix b/src/subsystems/php/translators/composer-json/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..99d121cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/subsystems/php/translators/composer-json/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+{
+  dlib,
+  lib,
+  ...
+}: let
+  l = lib // builtins;
+in {
+  type = "impure";
+
+  /*
+  Allow dream2nix to detect if a given directory contains a project
+  which can be translated with this translator.
+  Usually this can be done by checking for the existence of specific
+  file names or file endings.
+
+  Alternatively a fully featured discoverer can be implemented under
+  `src/subsystems/{subsystem}/discoverers`.
+  This is recommended if more complex project structures need to be
+  discovered like, for example, workspace projects spanning over multiple
+  sub-directories
+
+  If a fully featured discoverer exists, do not define `discoverProject`.
+  */
+  discoverProject = tree: (l.pathExists "${tree.fullPath}/composer.json");
+
+  # A derivation which outputs a single executable at `$out`.
+  # The executable will be called by dream2nix for translation
+  # The input format is specified in /specifications/translator-call-example.json.
+  # The first arg `$1` will be a json file containing the input parameters
+  # like defined in /src/specifications/translator-call-example.json and the
+  # additional arguments required according to extraArgs
+  #
+  # The program is expected to create a file at the location specified
+  # by the input parameter `outFile`.
+  # The output file must contain the dream lock data encoded as json.
+  # See /src/specifications/dream-lock-example.json
+  translateBin = {
+    # dream2nix utils
+    subsystems,
+    utils,
+    # nixpkgs dependenies
+    bash,
+    coreutils,
+    jq,
+    phpPackages,
+    writeScriptBin,
+    ...
+  }:
+    utils.writePureShellScript
+    [
+      bash
+      coreutils
+      jq
+      phpPackages.composer
+    ]
+    ''
+      # accroding to the spec, the translator reads the input from a json file
+      jsonInput=$1
+
+      # read the json input
+      outputFile=$(realpath -m $(jq '.outputFile' -c -r $jsonInput))
+      source=$(jq '.source' -c -r $jsonInput)
+      relPath=$(jq '.project.relPath' -c -r $jsonInput)
+
+      pushd $TMPDIR
+      cp -r $source/* ./
+      chmod -R +w ./
+      newSource=$(pwd)
+
+      cd ./$relPath
+      rm -f composer.lock
+
+      echo "translating in temp dir: $(pwd)"
+
+      # create lockfile
+      if [ "$(jq '.project.subsystemInfo.noDev' -c -r $jsonInput)" == "true" ]; then
+        echo "excluding dev dependencies"
+        jq '.require-dev = {}' ./composer.json > composer.json.mod
+        mv composer.json.mod composer.json
+        composer update --no-install --no-dev
+      else
+        composer update --no-install
+      fi
+
+      jq ".source = \"$newSource\"" -c -r $jsonInput > $TMPDIR/newJsonInput
+
+      popd
+      ${subsystems.php.translators.composer-lock.translateBin} $TMPDIR/newJsonInput
+    '';
+
+  # If the translator requires additional arguments, specify them here.
+  # When users run the CLI, they will be asked to specify these arguments.
+  # There are only two types of arguments:
+  #   - string argument (type = "argument")
+  #   - boolean flag (type = "flag")
+  # String arguments contain a default value and examples. Flags do not.
+  extraArgs = {
+    noDev = {
+      description = "Exclude development dependencies";
+      type = "flag";
+    };
+  };
+}