diff --git a/VERSIONS.json b/VERSIONS.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8b714fbc0dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/VERSIONS.json
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+{
+    "comment": "json format versions of tooling and languages used by automations to build and deploy, test this branch",
+    "tools": {
+        "composer": {
+            "name": "composer",
+            "version": "--2.2",
+            "comment": "Used with jenkins gh-actions unknown ATM"
+        },
+        "node": {
+            "name": "nodeJS",
+            "node-version-file": "./.nvmrc",
+            "comment": "we use the .nvmrc file version stored in the repo so Devs will see the same version as CI and release processes"
+        },
+        "php": {
+            "name": "PHP",
+            "GH-Actions_version": "7.2", 
+            "GH-Actions-comment": "this is hard code ATM in the GH actions and is below the version we use to release",
+            "version": "7.4",
+            "possible version values": [
+                "7.4",
+                "8.0",
+                "8.1",
+                "8.2"
+              ],
+            "container": "bullseye",
+            "possible container values": [
+                "bullseye"
+              ],
+            "comment": "used Jenkins container will be made of <version>-<container> see https://hub.docker.com/r/yoastseo/jenkins-plugin-release/tags"
+        },
+        "yarn": {
+            "name": "yarn",
+            "comment": "the version set in ./.yarnrc (line yarn-path is used by yarn it self"
+        }
+    }     
+}
+  
\ No newline at end of file