diff --git a/php/README.md b/php/README.md
index 0eefb0e4c54..2127dbf9761 100644
--- a/php/README.md
+++ b/php/README.md
@@ -46,6 +46,23 @@ To install dependencies, run `composer install` (https://getcomposer.org) before
 Many examples come with a `Runner.php` file to abstract the logic of the example from running the code.
 From any example directory with a `Runner.php` file, run the example with `php Runner.php`.
 
+
+## Linting and formatting
+We use [phpcs](https://github.com/PHPCSStandards/PHP_CodeSniffer/) to keep this code consistently formatted and styled.
+To contribute PHP code to this project, please refer to the following installation and usage steps.
+
+### Using PHPCS
+
+From the `/php` directory, make sure all dependencies are installed at that level with `composer install`. 
+
+Then, the linter can be run with
+`vendor/bin/phpcs --standard=../.github/linters/phpcs.xml --extensions=php --ignore=vendor /path/to/lint`
+
+Replace `/path/to/lint` with the directory you wish to check.
+
+Simple errors can be automatically fixed using phpcbf:
+`vendor/bin/phpcbf --standard=../.github/linters/phpcs.xml --extensions=php --ignore=vendor example_code/dynamodb/`
+
 ## Tests
 **Note**: Running the tests might result in charges to your AWS account.
 
diff --git a/php/composer.json b/php/composer.json
index e82128c77fb..e86ea85ee1f 100644
--- a/php/composer.json
+++ b/php/composer.json
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
     "require-dev": {
         "phpunit/phpunit": "^9.5",
         "php-mock/php-mock-phpunit": "*",
-        "squizlabs/php_codesniffer": "3.*"
+        "squizlabs/php_codesniffer": "*"
     },
     "autoload": {
         "psr-0": {
diff --git a/php/composer.lock b/php/composer.lock
index f2647a553ed..defa558549a 100644
--- a/php/composer.lock
+++ b/php/composer.lock
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
         "Read more about it at https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md#installing-dependencies",
         "This file is @generated automatically"
     ],
-    "content-hash": "e1a484c60c68b2a50dc72bcd038955c2",
+    "content-hash": "ad58d15c0f671a59f05d36766dc9f28a",
     "packages": [
         {
             "name": "aws/aws-crt-php",
@@ -2793,16 +2793,16 @@
         },
         {
             "name": "squizlabs/php_codesniffer",
-            "version": "3.7.2",
+            "version": "3.10.1",
             "source": {
                 "type": "git",
-                "url": "https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer.git",
-                "reference": "ed8e00df0a83aa96acf703f8c2979ff33341f879"
+                "url": "https://github.com/PHPCSStandards/PHP_CodeSniffer.git",
+                "reference": "8f90f7a53ce271935282967f53d0894f8f1ff877"
             },
             "dist": {
                 "type": "zip",
-                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer/zipball/ed8e00df0a83aa96acf703f8c2979ff33341f879",
-                "reference": "ed8e00df0a83aa96acf703f8c2979ff33341f879",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/PHPCSStandards/PHP_CodeSniffer/zipball/8f90f7a53ce271935282967f53d0894f8f1ff877",
+                "reference": "8f90f7a53ce271935282967f53d0894f8f1ff877",
                 "shasum": ""
             },
             "require": {
@@ -2812,11 +2812,11 @@
                 "php": ">=5.4.0"
             },
             "require-dev": {
-                "phpunit/phpunit": "^4.0 || ^5.0 || ^6.0 || ^7.0"
+                "phpunit/phpunit": "^4.0 || ^5.0 || ^6.0 || ^7.0 || ^8.0 || ^9.3.4"
             },
             "bin": [
-                "bin/phpcs",
-                "bin/phpcbf"
+                "bin/phpcbf",
+                "bin/phpcs"
             ],
             "type": "library",
             "extra": {
@@ -2831,22 +2831,45 @@
             "authors": [
                 {
                     "name": "Greg Sherwood",
-                    "role": "lead"
+                    "role": "Former lead"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Juliette Reinders Folmer",
+                    "role": "Current lead"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Contributors",
+                    "homepage": "https://github.com/PHPCSStandards/PHP_CodeSniffer/graphs/contributors"
                 }
             ],
             "description": "PHP_CodeSniffer tokenizes PHP, JavaScript and CSS files and detects violations of a defined set of coding standards.",
-            "homepage": "https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer",
+            "homepage": "https://github.com/PHPCSStandards/PHP_CodeSniffer",
             "keywords": [
                 "phpcs",
                 "standards",
                 "static analysis"
             ],
             "support": {
-                "issues": "https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer/issues",
-                "source": "https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer",
-                "wiki": "https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer/wiki"
+                "issues": "https://github.com/PHPCSStandards/PHP_CodeSniffer/issues",
+                "security": "https://github.com/PHPCSStandards/PHP_CodeSniffer/security/policy",
+                "source": "https://github.com/PHPCSStandards/PHP_CodeSniffer",
+                "wiki": "https://github.com/PHPCSStandards/PHP_CodeSniffer/wiki"
             },
-            "time": "2023-02-22T23:07:41+00:00"
+            "funding": [
+                {
+                    "url": "https://github.com/PHPCSStandards",
+                    "type": "github"
+                },
+                {
+                    "url": "https://github.com/jrfnl",
+                    "type": "github"
+                },
+                {
+                    "url": "https://opencollective.com/php_codesniffer",
+                    "type": "open_collective"
+                }
+            ],
+            "time": "2024-05-22T21:24:41+00:00"
         },
         {
             "name": "theseer/tokenizer",