diff --git a/tools/install_idf.sh b/tools/install_idf.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..31263055
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/install_idf.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+ESP_IDF_VERSION=${ESP_IDF_VERSION:-v5.4.2}
+ESP_IDF_TARGET=${ESP_IDF_TARGET:-esp32p4}
+ESP_IDF_ROOT=${ESP_IDF_ROOT:-$HOME/.espressif}
+
+IDF_PATH="${ESP_IDF_ROOT}/esp-idf-${ESP_IDF_VERSION}"
+REPO_URL="https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf.git"
+
+for cmd in git python3 bash; do
+  if ! command -v "$cmd" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    echo "Error: '$cmd' is required but was not found in PATH." >&2
+    echo "Please install $cmd before running this script." >&2
+    exit 1
+  fi
+done
+
+mkdir -p "${ESP_IDF_ROOT}"
+
+if [ -d "${IDF_PATH}" ] && [ ! -d "${IDF_PATH}/.git" ]; then
+  echo "Error: ${IDF_PATH} exists but is not a git repository." >&2
+  echo "Please remove or rename it before running this script." >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+if [ ! -d "${IDF_PATH}/.git" ]; then
+  echo "Cloning ESP-IDF ${ESP_IDF_VERSION} into ${IDF_PATH}"
+  git clone --depth 1 --branch "${ESP_IDF_VERSION}" "${REPO_URL}" "${IDF_PATH}"
+else
+  echo "Updating existing ESP-IDF checkout at ${IDF_PATH}"
+  git -C "${IDF_PATH}" fetch --depth 1 origin "${ESP_IDF_VERSION}"
+  git -C "${IDF_PATH}" reset --hard FETCH_HEAD
+fi
+
+if [ ! -x "${IDF_PATH}/install.sh" ]; then
+  echo "Error: install.sh not found or not executable in ${IDF_PATH}." >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+"${IDF_PATH}/install.sh" "${ESP_IDF_TARGET}"
+
+export IDF_PATH
+
+# shellcheck source=/dev/null
+source "${IDF_PATH}/export.sh"
+
+idf.py --version
+
+echo
+cat <<INSTRUCTIONS
+ESP-IDF is installed at: ${IDF_PATH}
+To use ESP-IDF in new shells, run:
+  export IDF_PATH="${IDF_PATH}"
+  source "${IDF_PATH}/export.sh"
+Then, verify with:
+  idf.py --version
+INSTRUCTIONS