diff --git a/config/downloader.php b/config/downloader.php
index 48710a88..2d81a57e 100644
--- a/config/downloader.php
+++ b/config/downloader.php
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ use StaticPHP\Artifact\Downloader\Type\GitHubRelease;
 use StaticPHP\Artifact\Downloader\Type\GitHubTarball;
 use StaticPHP\Artifact\Downloader\Type\HostedPackageBin;
 use StaticPHP\Artifact\Downloader\Type\LocalDir;
+use StaticPHP\Artifact\Downloader\Type\PECL;
 use StaticPHP\Artifact\Downloader\Type\PhpRelease;
 use StaticPHP\Artifact\Downloader\Type\PIE;
 use StaticPHP\Artifact\Downloader\Type\Url;
@@ -24,6 +25,7 @@ return [
     'ghtagtar' => GitHubTarball::class,
     'local' => LocalDir::class,
     'pie' => PIE::class,
+    'pecl' => PECL::class,
     'url' => Url::class,
     'php-release' => PhpRelease::class,
     'hosted' => HostedPackageBin::class,
diff --git a/config/pkg/ext/builtin-extensions.yml b/config/pkg/ext/builtin-extensions.yml
index d12cd219..0149fe97 100644
--- a/config/pkg/ext/builtin-extensions.yml
+++ b/config/pkg/ext/builtin-extensions.yml
@@ -1,5 +1,19 @@
 ext-bcmath:
   type: php-extension
+ext-mbregex:
+  type: php-extension
+  depends:
+    - onig
+    - ext-mbstring
+  php-extension:
+    arg-type: custom
+    build-shared: false
+    build-static: true
+    display-name: mbstring
+ext-mbstring:
+  type: php-extension
+  php-extension:
+    arg-type: custom
 ext-openssl:
   type: php-extension
   depends:
@@ -10,6 +24,21 @@ ext-openssl:
     arg-type: custom
     arg-type@windows: with
     build-with-php: true
+ext-phar:
+  type: php-extension
+  depends:
+    - zlib
+ext-readline:
+  type: php-extension
+  depends:
+    - libedit
+  php-extension:
+    support:
+      Windows: wip
+      BSD: wip
+    arg-type: with-path
+    build-shared: false
+    build-static: true
 ext-zlib:
   type: php-extension
   depends:
diff --git a/config/pkg/ext/ext-amqp.yml b/config/pkg/ext/ext-amqp.yml
index 93756914..1c802360 100644
--- a/config/pkg/ext/ext-amqp.yml
+++ b/config/pkg/ext/ext-amqp.yml
@@ -2,10 +2,8 @@ ext-amqp:
   type: php-extension
   artifact:
     source:
-      type: url
-      url: 'https://pecl.php.net/get/amqp'
-      extract: php-src/ext/amqp
-      filename: amqp.tgz
+      type: pecl
+      name: amqp
     metadata:
       license-files: [LICENSE]
       license: PHP-3.01
diff --git a/config/pkg/ext/ext-apcu.yml b/config/pkg/ext/ext-apcu.yml
index 289de301..331b04f7 100644
--- a/config/pkg/ext/ext-apcu.yml
+++ b/config/pkg/ext/ext-apcu.yml
@@ -2,10 +2,8 @@ ext-apcu:
   type: php-extension
   artifact:
     source:
-      type: url
-      url: 'https://pecl.php.net/get/APCu'
-      extract: php-src/ext/apcu
-      filename: apcu.tgz
+      type: pecl
+      name: APCu
     metadata:
       license-files: [LICENSE]
       license: PHP-3.01
diff --git a/config/pkg/ext/ext-ast.yml b/config/pkg/ext/ext-ast.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0684959d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/pkg/ext/ext-ast.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+ext-ast:
+  type: php-extension
+  artifact:
+    source:
+      type: pecl
+      name: ast
diff --git a/config/pkg/ext/ext-mbregex.yml b/config/pkg/ext/ext-mbregex.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index ae59f023..00000000
--- a/config/pkg/ext/ext-mbregex.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,10 +0,0 @@
-ext-mbregex:
-  type: php-extension
-  depends:
-    - onig
-    - ext-mbstring
-  php-extension:
-    arg-type: custom
-    build-shared: false
-    build-static: true
-    display-name: mbstring
diff --git a/config/pkg/ext/ext-mbstring.yml b/config/pkg/ext/ext-mbstring.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 6583ca61..00000000
--- a/config/pkg/ext/ext-mbstring.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-ext-mbstring:
-  type: php-extension
-  php-extension:
-    arg-type: custom
diff --git a/config/pkg/ext/ext-phar.yml b/config/pkg/ext/ext-phar.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 3625d2c0..00000000
--- a/config/pkg/ext/ext-phar.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-ext-phar:
-  type: php-extension
-  depends:
-    - zlib
diff --git a/config/pkg/ext/ext-readline.yml b/config/pkg/ext/ext-readline.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 19b1886c..00000000
--- a/config/pkg/ext/ext-readline.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-ext-readline:
-  type: php-extension
-  depends:
-    - libedit
-  php-extension:
-    support:
-      Windows: wip
-      BSD: wip
-    arg-type: with-path
-    build-shared: false
-    build-static: true
diff --git a/src/StaticPHP/Artifact/ArtifactCache.php b/src/StaticPHP/Artifact/ArtifactCache.php
index dcd75ef7..ea3bde41 100644
--- a/src/StaticPHP/Artifact/ArtifactCache.php
+++ b/src/StaticPHP/Artifact/ArtifactCache.php
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ class ArtifactCache
             throw new SPCInternalException("Invalid lock type '{$lock_type}' for artifact {$artifact_name}");
         }
         // save cache to file
-        file_put_contents($this->cache_file, json_encode($this->cache, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT));
+        file_put_contents($this->cache_file, json_encode($this->cache, JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES | JSON_PRETTY_PRINT | JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE));
     }
 
     /**
@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ class ArtifactCache
      */
     public function save(): void
     {
-        file_put_contents($this->cache_file, json_encode($this->cache, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT));
+        file_put_contents($this->cache_file, json_encode($this->cache, JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES | JSON_PRETTY_PRINT | JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE));
     }
 
     private function isObjectDownloaded(?array $object, bool $compare_hash = false): bool
diff --git a/src/StaticPHP/Artifact/Downloader/Type/Git.php b/src/StaticPHP/Artifact/Downloader/Type/Git.php
index 4a712005..1ee9da4d 100644
--- a/src/StaticPHP/Artifact/Downloader/Type/Git.php
+++ b/src/StaticPHP/Artifact/Downloader/Type/Git.php
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ class Git implements DownloadTypeInterface, CheckUpdateInterface
         if (isset($config['rev'])) {
             default_shell()->executeGitClone($config['url'], $config['rev'], $path, $shallow, $config['submodules'] ?? null);
             $shell = PHP_OS_FAMILY === 'Windows' ? cmd(false) : shell(false);
-            $hash_result = $shell->execWithResult(SPC_GIT_EXEC . ' -C ' . escapeshellarg($path) . ' rev-parse HEAD');
+            $hash_result = $shell->execWithResult(SPC_GIT_EXEC . ' -C ' . escapeshellarg($path) . ' rev-parse --short HEAD');
             $hash = ($hash_result[0] === 0 && !empty($hash_result[1])) ? trim($hash_result[1][0]) : '';
             $version = $hash !== '' ? "dev-{$config['rev']}+{$hash}" : "dev-{$config['rev']}";
             return DownloadResult::git($name, $config, extract: $config['extract'] ?? null, version: $version, downloader: static::class);
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ class Git implements DownloadTypeInterface, CheckUpdateInterface
             if ($result[0] !== 0 || empty($result[1])) {
                 throw new DownloaderException("Failed to ls-remote from {$config['url']}");
             }
-            $new_hash = substr($result[1][0], 0, 40);
+            $new_hash = substr($result[1][0], 0, 7);
             $new_version = "dev-{$config['rev']}+{$new_hash}";
             // Extract stored hash from "dev-{rev}+{hash}", null if bare mode or old format without hash
             $old_hash = ($old_version !== null && str_contains($old_version, '+')) ? substr(strrchr($old_version, '+'), 1) : null;
diff --git a/src/StaticPHP/Artifact/Downloader/Type/PECL.php b/src/StaticPHP/Artifact/Downloader/Type/PECL.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0b14b05d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/StaticPHP/Artifact/Downloader/Type/PECL.php
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace StaticPHP\Artifact\Downloader\Type;
+
+use StaticPHP\Artifact\ArtifactDownloader;
+use StaticPHP\Artifact\Downloader\DownloadResult;
+use StaticPHP\Exception\DownloaderException;
+
+/* pecl */
+class PECL implements DownloadTypeInterface, CheckUpdateInterface
+{
+    private const string PECL_BASE_URL = 'https://pecl.php.net';
+
+    /** REST API: returns XML with <r><v>VERSION</v><s>STATE</s></r> per release */
+    private const string PECL_REST_URL = 'https://pecl.php.net/rest/r/%s/allreleases.xml';
+
+    public function checkUpdate(string $name, array $config, ?string $old_version, ArtifactDownloader $downloader): CheckUpdateResult
+    {
+        [, $version] = $this->fetchPECLInfo($name, $config, $downloader);
+        return new CheckUpdateResult(
+            old: $old_version,
+            new: $version,
+            needUpdate: $old_version === null || version_compare($version, $old_version, '>'),
+        );
+    }
+
+    public function download(string $name, array $config, ArtifactDownloader $downloader): DownloadResult
+    {
+        [$filename, $version] = $this->fetchPECLInfo($name, $config, $downloader);
+        $url = self::PECL_BASE_URL . '/get/' . $filename;
+        $path = DOWNLOAD_PATH . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $filename;
+        logger()->debug("Downloading {$name} from URL: {$url}");
+        default_shell()->executeCurlDownload($url, $path, retries: $downloader->getRetry());
+        $extract = $config['extract'] ?? ('php-src/ext/' . $this->getExtractName($name));
+        return DownloadResult::archive($filename, $config, $extract, version: $version, downloader: static::class);
+    }
+
+    protected function fetchPECLInfo(string $name, array $config, ArtifactDownloader $downloader): array
+    {
+        $peclName = strtolower($config['name'] ?? $this->getExtractName($name));
+        $url = sprintf(self::PECL_REST_URL, $peclName);
+        logger()->debug("Fetching PECL release list for {$name} from REST API");
+        $xml = default_shell()->executeCurl($url, retries: $downloader->getRetry());
+        if ($xml === false) {
+            throw new DownloaderException("Failed to fetch PECL release list for {$name}");
+        }
+        // Match <r><v>VERSION</v><s>STATE</s></r>
+        preg_match_all('/<r><v>(?P<version>[^<]+)<\/v><s>(?P<state>[^<]+)<\/s><\/r>/', $xml, $matches);
+        if (empty($matches['version'])) {
+            throw new DownloaderException("Failed to parse PECL release list for {$name}");
+        }
+        $versions = [];
+        logger()->debug('Matched ' . count($matches['version']) . " releases for {$name} from PECL");
+        foreach ($matches['version'] as $i => $version) {
+            if ($matches['state'][$i] !== 'stable') {
+                continue;
+            }
+            $versions[$version] = $peclName . '-' . $version . '.tgz';
+        }
+        if (empty($versions)) {
+            throw new DownloaderException("No stable releases found for {$name} on PECL");
+        }
+        uksort($versions, 'version_compare');
+        $filename = end($versions);
+        $version = array_key_last($versions);
+        return [$filename, $version, $versions];
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Derive the lowercase PECL package / extract name from the artifact name.
+     * e.g. "ext-apcu" -> "apcu", "ext-ast" -> "ast"
+     */
+    private function getExtractName(string $name): string
+    {
+        return strtolower(preg_replace('/^ext-/i', '', $name));
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/StaticPHP/Config/ConfigValidator.php b/src/StaticPHP/Config/ConfigValidator.php
index fbf88321..83f9ca41 100644
--- a/src/StaticPHP/Config/ConfigValidator.php
+++ b/src/StaticPHP/Config/ConfigValidator.php
@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ class ConfigValidator
         'bitbuckettag' => [['repo'], ['extract']],
         'local' => [['dirname'], ['extract']],
         'pie' => [['repo'], ['extract']],
+        'pecl' => [['name'], ['extract']],
         'php-release' => [[], ['extract']],
         'custom' => [[], ['func']],
     ];
diff --git a/src/StaticPHP/Runtime/Shell/DefaultShell.php b/src/StaticPHP/Runtime/Shell/DefaultShell.php
index 5b50d152..66dfb7ab 100644
--- a/src/StaticPHP/Runtime/Shell/DefaultShell.php
+++ b/src/StaticPHP/Runtime/Shell/DefaultShell.php
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ class DefaultShell extends Shell
     /**
      * Execute a cURL command to fetch data from a URL.
      */
-    public function executeCurl(string $url, string $method = 'GET', array $headers = [], array $hooks = [], int $retries = 0): false|string
+    public function executeCurl(string $url, string $method = 'GET', array $headers = [], array $hooks = [], int $retries = 0, bool $compressed = false): false|string
     {
         foreach ($hooks as $hook) {
             $hook($method, $url, $headers);
@@ -39,7 +39,8 @@ class DefaultShell extends Shell
         };
         $header_arg = implode(' ', array_map(fn ($v) => '"-H' . $v . '"', $headers));
         $retry_arg = $retries > 0 ? "--retry {$retries}" : '';
-        $cmd = SPC_CURL_EXEC . " -sfSL {$retry_arg} {$method_arg} {$header_arg} {$url_arg}";
+        $compressed_arg = $compressed ? '--compressed' : '';
+        $cmd = SPC_CURL_EXEC . " -sfSL --max-time 3600 {$retry_arg} {$compressed_arg} {$method_arg} {$header_arg} {$url_arg}";
 
         $this->logCommandInfo($cmd);
         $result = $this->passthru($cmd, capture_output: true, throw_on_error: false);
@@ -72,7 +73,7 @@ class DefaultShell extends Shell
         $header_arg = implode(' ', array_map(fn ($v) => '"-H' . $v . '"', $headers));
         $retry_arg = $retries > 0 ? "--retry {$retries}" : '';
         $check = $this->console_putput ? '#' : 's';
-        $cmd = clean_spaces(SPC_CURL_EXEC . " -{$check}fSL {$retry_arg} {$header_arg} -o {$path_arg} {$url_arg}");
+        $cmd = clean_spaces(SPC_CURL_EXEC . " -{$check}fSL --max-time 3600 {$retry_arg} {$header_arg} -o {$path_arg} {$url_arg}");
         $this->logCommandInfo($cmd);
         logger()->debug('[CURL DOWNLOAD] ' . $cmd);
         $this->passthru($cmd, $this->console_putput, capture_output: false, throw_on_error: true);
@@ -93,7 +94,7 @@ class DefaultShell extends Shell
         $path_arg = escapeshellarg($path);
         $shallow_arg = $shallow ? '--depth 1 --single-branch' : '';
         $submodules_arg = ($submodules === null && $shallow) ? '--recursive --shallow-submodules' : ($submodules === null ? '--recursive' : '');
-        $cmd = clean_spaces("{$git} clone --config core.autocrlf=false --branch {$branch_arg} {$shallow_arg} {$submodules_arg} {$url_arg} {$path_arg}");
+        $cmd = clean_spaces("{$git} clone -c http.lowSpeedLimit=1 -c http.lowSpeedTime=3600 --config core.autocrlf=false --branch {$branch_arg} {$shallow_arg} {$submodules_arg} {$url_arg} {$path_arg}");
         $this->logCommandInfo($cmd);
         logger()->debug("[GIT CLONE] {$cmd}");
         $this->passthru($cmd, $this->console_putput);