diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index f98336ba9..001417643 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -42,6 +42,35 @@ the system we use to tag our issues and pull requests.
 ### Local development
 You can develop LangFlow using docker compose, or locally.
 
+We provide a .vscode/launch.json file for debugging the backend in VSCode, which is a lot faster than using docker compose.
+
+Setting up hooks:
+```bash
+make init
+```
+
+This will install the pre-commit hooks, which will run `make format` on every commit.
+
+It is advised to run `make lint` before pushing to the repository.
+
+#### **Locally**
+Run locally by cloning the repository and installing the dependencies. We recommend using a virtual environment to isolate the dependencies from your system.
+
+Before you start, make sure you have the following installed:
+  - Poetry (>=1.4)
+  - Node.js
+
+For the backend, you will need to install the dependencies and start the development server.
+```bash
+make install_backend
+make backend
+```
+For the frontend, you will need to install the dependencies and start the development server.
+```bash
+make frontend
+```
+
+
 #### **Docker compose**
 This will run the backend and frontend in separate containers. The frontend will be available at `localhost:3000` and the backend at `localhost:7860`.
 ```bash
@@ -50,22 +79,4 @@ docker compose up --build
 make dev build=1
 ```
 
-#### **Locally**
-Run locally by cloning the repository and installing the dependencies. We recommend using a virtual environment to isolate the dependencies from your system.
-
-Before you start, make sure you have the following installed:
-  - Poetry
-  - Node.js
-
-For the backend, you will need to install the dependencies and start the development server.
-```bash
-poetry install
-make run_backend
-```
-For the frontend, you will need to install the dependencies and start the development server.
-```bash
-cd src/frontend
-npm install
-npm start
-```