diff --git a/app/Http/Controllers/Controller.php b/app/Http/Controllers/Controller.php
index 02fe9100d7..c026e355ce 100644
--- a/app/Http/Controllers/Controller.php
+++ b/app/Http/Controllers/Controller.php
@@ -80,6 +80,14 @@ abstract class Controller extends BaseController
         View::share('FF_VERSION', config('firefly.version'));
         View::share('FF_BUILD_TIME', config('firefly.build_time'));
 
+        // this breaks when running < php 8.5 and is totally intentional.
+        $input = ' James is cool';
+        $output = $input
+                  |> trim(...)
+                  |> (fn (string $string) => str_replace(' ', '-', $string))
+                  |> (fn (string $string) => str_replace(['.', '/', '…'], '', $string))
+                  |> strtolower(...);
+
         // is webhooks enabled?
         View::share(
             'featuringWebhooks',
diff --git a/composer.json b/composer.json
index ddd641278f..af21798a26 100644
--- a/composer.json
+++ b/composer.json
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@
         }
     ],
     "require": {
-        "php": ">=8.4",
+        "php": ">=8.5",
         "ext-bcmath": "*",
         "ext-curl": "*",
         "ext-fileinfo": "*",
@@ -198,9 +198,6 @@
             "composer/package-versions-deprecated": true,
             "phpstan/extension-installer": true,
             "php-http/discovery": true
-        },
-        "platform": {
-            "php": "8.4"
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/composer.lock b/composer.lock
index c4963f3dc9..ba554b9378 100644
--- a/composer.lock
+++ b/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": "c4e7dd2df7bae96ea6e4df82530411b9",
+    "content-hash": "e5d655e9e31369eabf54e9c6f702e688",
     "packages": [
         {
             "name": "bacon/bacon-qr-code",
@@ -13202,7 +13202,7 @@
     "prefer-stable": false,
     "prefer-lowest": false,
     "platform": {
-        "php": ">=8.4",
+        "php": ">=8.5",
         "ext-bcmath": "*",
         "ext-curl": "*",
         "ext-fileinfo": "*",
@@ -13221,7 +13221,7 @@
     },
     "platform-dev": {},
     "platform-overrides": {
-        "php": "8.4"
+        "php": "8.5"
     },
     "plugin-api-version": "2.9.0"
 }