diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 2018925e1..ff699dcde 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -110,6 +110,7 @@ dist
 # .vscode
 .vscode/
 !.vscode/tasks.json
+!.vscode/launch.json
 
 # Ignore Jupyter Notebook files
 *.ipynb
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 2520900e0..9877e3aa8 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ services:
       dockerfile: backend.Dockerfile
     ports:
       - 5000:5000
+      - 5678:5678
     environment:
       - UVICORN_PORT=5000
       - UVICORN_RELOAD=true
@@ -34,6 +35,12 @@ services:
       - CODESPACE_NAME  # Automatically set env. variable by GitHub codespace
     volumes:
       - ./backend/src:/home/appuser/backend/src
+    command:
+      [
+        "sh",
+        "-c",
+        "pip install debugpy && python -m debugpy --listen 0.0.0.0:5678 -m uvicorn --proxy-headers --host=0.0.0.0 $${UVICORN_ENTRYPOINT}",
+      ]
 
   backend-user-session:
     build: