diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index 6cce18e..cd5a7a3 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ src/
     EventBus.php               Pub/sub used for key/mouse/custom events
     CommandInvoker.php          Thin wrapper around php-di's Invoker (see Commands note below)
     MessageFormatter.php        JSON syntax highlighting for log payloads
+    PhpHighlighter.php           PHP syntax highlighting (native token_get_all) for the code excerpt in Details
     CommandAttributes/          #[KeyPressed] #[Mouse] #[OnEvent] #[Periodic] #[FirstRender]
     Commands/Command.php        Abstract marker class — currently has zero implementations (see known-issues.md)
     Components/                 Header, LogList, LogItem, Details, Navigation, Splash, Filter (the `/` filter input line, see typingMode below)
diff --git a/src/Console/Components/Details.php b/src/Console/Components/Details.php
index 3896706..76aeebc 100644
--- a/src/Console/Components/Details.php
+++ b/src/Console/Components/Details.php
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 use Tapper\Console\Component;
 use Tapper\Console\MessageFormatter;
 use Tapper\Console\Palette;
+use Tapper\Console\PhpHighlighter;
 use Tapper\Console\Support\Scroll;
 
 class Details extends Component
@@ -83,21 +84,32 @@ public function pageDown(): void
 
     private function parseCode(array $code): array
     {
-        return array_map(function ($line) {
-            $style = Style::default()->darkGray();
+        $numberWidth = array_reduce(
+            $code,
+            fn (int $width, array $line): int => max($width, strlen((string) $line['number'])),
+            1,
+        );
 
-            if ($line['active']) {
-                $style = $style->lightGreen();
-            }
+        return array_map(function ($line) use ($numberWidth) {
+            $active = $line['active'];
+
+            $prefixStyle = $active
+                ? Style::default()->fg(RgbColor::fromHex(Palette::ACCENT))
+                : Style::default()->darkGray();
 
-            $codeLine = sprintf(
-                ' %s %s│ %s',
-                $line['number'],
-                $line['active'] ? '➔' : ' ',
-                $line['line'],
+            $prefix = Span::styled(
+                sprintf(' %s %s│ ', str_pad((string) $line['number'], $numberWidth, ' ', STR_PAD_LEFT), $active ? '➔' : ' '),
+                $prefixStyle,
             );
 
-            return ListItem::fromString($codeLine)->style($style);
+            $lineSpans = [$prefix, ...PhpHighlighter::highlightLine($line['line'])];
+            $item = ListItem::new(Text::fromLine(new Line($lineSpans)));
+
+            if ($active) {
+                $item = $item->style(Style::default()->bg(RgbColor::fromHex(Palette::SELECTION_BG)));
+            }
+
+            return $item;
         }, $code);
     }
 
diff --git a/src/Console/PhpHighlighter.php b/src/Console/PhpHighlighter.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4d308b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Console/PhpHighlighter.php
@@ -0,0 +1,141 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace Tapper\Console;
+
+use PhpTui\Tui\Color\RgbColor;
+use PhpTui\Tui\Style\Style;
+use PhpTui\Tui\Text\Span;
+
+/**
+ * Syntax-highlights a single line of PHP source using the native `token_get_all()`
+ * lexer, so the code excerpt shown in the Details view gets real PHP highlighting
+ * instead of a flat color per line. Each excerpt line is tokenized independently
+ * (prefixed with a synthetic `<?php ` tag that is stripped from the output), which
+ * is a best-effort approximation: constructs spanning multiple lines (e.g. a heredoc
+ * that starts above the excerpt window) may tokenize imperfectly, but `token_get_all`
+ * never throws for that — it just produces slightly-off tokens for that one line.
+ */
+final class PhpHighlighter
+{
+    private const string KEYWORD_COLOR = 'bb9af7';
+
+    private const string VARIABLE_COLOR = '7dcfff';
+
+    private const string STRING_COLOR = '9ece6a';
+
+    private const string NUMBER_COLOR = 'ff9e64';
+
+    private const string COMMENT_COLOR = '565f89';
+
+    private const string FUNCTION_COLOR = '7aa2f7';
+
+    private const array KEYWORD_TOKENS = [
+        T_IF, T_ELSE, T_ELSEIF, T_ENDIF, T_FOR, T_FOREACH, T_ENDFOR, T_ENDFOREACH,
+        T_WHILE, T_ENDWHILE, T_DO, T_SWITCH, T_ENDSWITCH, T_CASE, T_DEFAULT, T_BREAK,
+        T_CONTINUE, T_FUNCTION, T_FN, T_RETURN, T_CLASS, T_INTERFACE, T_TRAIT, T_ENUM,
+        T_EXTENDS, T_IMPLEMENTS, T_NEW, T_CLONE, T_INSTANCEOF, T_STATIC, T_PUBLIC,
+        T_PROTECTED, T_PRIVATE, T_ABSTRACT, T_FINAL, T_READONLY, T_CONST, T_USE,
+        T_NAMESPACE, T_TRY, T_CATCH, T_FINALLY, T_THROW, T_MATCH, T_ECHO, T_PRINT,
+        T_GLOBAL, T_ARRAY, T_LIST, T_ISSET, T_UNSET, T_EMPTY, T_YIELD, T_AS,
+        T_LOGICAL_AND, T_LOGICAL_OR, T_LOGICAL_XOR, T_REQUIRE, T_REQUIRE_ONCE,
+        T_INCLUDE, T_INCLUDE_ONCE, T_GOTO, T_DECLARE, T_ENDDECLARE, T_VAR, T_CALLABLE,
+        T_INSTEADOF,
+    ];
+
+    private const array STRING_TOKENS = [
+        T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING, T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE, T_START_HEREDOC,
+        T_END_HEREDOC,
+    ];
+
+    private const array COMMENT_TOKENS = [T_COMMENT, T_DOC_COMMENT];
+
+    private const array BARE_KEYWORDS = ['true', 'false', 'null', 'self', 'parent'];
+
+    /**
+     * @return Span[]
+     */
+    public static function highlightLine(string $line): array
+    {
+        $tokens = token_get_all('<?php '.$line);
+
+        // Drop the synthetic opening tag we injected above so it never appears in output.
+        array_shift($tokens);
+
+        $spans = [];
+
+        foreach ($tokens as $i => $token) {
+            if (is_string($token)) {
+                $spans[] = Span::fromString($token);
+
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            [$id, $text] = $token;
+            $spans[] = Span::styled($text, self::styleFor($id, $text, $tokens, $i));
+        }
+
+        return $spans;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @param  array<int, array{0: int, 1: string, 2: int}|string>  $tokens
+     */
+    private static function styleFor(int $id, string $text, array $tokens, int $index): Style
+    {
+        if (in_array($id, self::COMMENT_TOKENS, true)) {
+            return Style::default()->fg(RgbColor::fromHex(self::COMMENT_COLOR));
+        }
+
+        if (in_array($id, self::KEYWORD_TOKENS, true)) {
+            return Style::default()->fg(RgbColor::fromHex(self::KEYWORD_COLOR));
+        }
+
+        if ($id === T_VARIABLE) {
+            return Style::default()->fg(RgbColor::fromHex(self::VARIABLE_COLOR));
+        }
+
+        if (in_array($id, self::STRING_TOKENS, true)) {
+            return Style::default()->fg(RgbColor::fromHex(self::STRING_COLOR));
+        }
+
+        if ($id === T_LNUMBER || $id === T_DNUMBER) {
+            return Style::default()->fg(RgbColor::fromHex(self::NUMBER_COLOR));
+        }
+
+        if ($id === T_STRING) {
+            if (in_array(strtolower($text), self::BARE_KEYWORDS, true)) {
+                return Style::default()->fg(RgbColor::fromHex(self::KEYWORD_COLOR));
+            }
+
+            if (self::nextSignificant($tokens, $index) === '(') {
+                return Style::default()->fg(RgbColor::fromHex(self::FUNCTION_COLOR));
+            }
+        }
+
+        return Style::default()->fg(RgbColor::fromHex(Palette::TEXT_DEFAULT));
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @param  array<int, array{0: int, 1: string, 2: int}|string>  $tokens
+     */
+    private static function nextSignificant(array $tokens, int $index): ?string
+    {
+        for ($i = $index + 1; $i < count($tokens); $i++) {
+            $token = $tokens[$i];
+
+            if (is_string($token)) {
+                return $token;
+            }
+
+            if ($token[0] === T_WHITESPACE) {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            return $token[1];
+        }
+
+        return null;
+    }
+}