diff --git a/docs/assets/intellij-remote-debug.png b/docs/assets/intellij-remote-debug.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1aa1b023a7
Binary files /dev/null and b/docs/assets/intellij-remote-debug.png differ
diff --git a/docs/guide/dev-environment.md b/docs/guide/dev-environment.md
index 527dc8dffd..d9fa4d7778 100644
--- a/docs/guide/dev-environment.md
+++ b/docs/guide/dev-environment.md
@@ -43,6 +43,14 @@ By default, the version of GeoNetwork used as a backend is 4.2.2. You can specif
 $ GEONETWORK_VERSION=4.2.5 docker compose up -d
 ```
 
+### Remote debugging of GeoNetwork
+
+When using an IDE that supports Java remote debugging (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA), it is possible to connect to the running GeoNetwork instance by creating a "Remote JVM Debug" configuration pointing on the `5005` port; This could for example look like so:
+
+![intellij-remote-debug.png](..%2Fassets%2Fintellij-remote-debug.png)
+
+Then, the remote debugger will be able to attach to GeoNetwork once it's running and you will be able to create breakpoints and inspect the running code.
+
 ## GeoNetwork-UI code
 
 ### Applications
diff --git a/support-services/docker-compose.yml b/support-services/docker-compose.yml
index 8ee3b01ff6..5bcc64c8ea 100644
--- a/support-services/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/support-services/docker-compose.yml
@@ -80,6 +80,15 @@ services:
       GEONETWORK_DB_NAME: geonetwork
       GEONETWORK_DB_USERNAME: geonetwork
       GEONETWORK_DB_PASSWORD: geonetwork
+      JAVA_OPTS: >
+        -Dorg.eclipse.jetty.annotations.AnnotationParser.LEVEL=OFF
+        -Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom -Djava.awt.headless=true
+        -Xms512M -Xss512M -Xmx2G -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC
+        -Dgeonetwork.resources.dir=/var/lib/jetty/webapps/geonetwork/WEB-INF/data/data/resources
+        -Dgeonetwork.data.dir=/var/lib/jetty/webapps/geonetwork/WEB-INF/data/data
+        -Dgeonetwork.codeList.dir=/var/lib/jetty/webapps/geonetwork/WEB-INF/data/config/codelist
+        -Dgeonetwork.schema.dir=/var/lib/jetty/webapps/geonetwork/WEB-INF/data/config/schema_plugins
+        -Xdebug -agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=0.0.0.0:5005
     depends_on:
       database:
         condition: service_healthy
@@ -98,6 +107,7 @@ services:
       - geonetwork_data:/var/lib/jetty/webapps/geonetwork/WEB-INF/data/
     ports:
       - '8080:8080'
+      - '5005:5005'
 
   init-pipeline:
     image: geonetwork/geonetwork-ui-tools-pipelines:latest