diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 338786e21..63b567b90 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ mealie/temp/*
 mealie/temp/api.html
 .temp/
 
+# ignore frontend build artefacts
+frontend/dist
 
 app_data/backups/*
 app_data/debug/*
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ea23648fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+all: build backend
+setup: setup-backend setup-frontend
+build: setup build-frontend
+backend: uvicorn
+frontend: vue
+
+setup-backend:
+	poetry install
+
+setup-frontend:
+	cd frontend && npm install
+
+build-frontend:
+	cd frontend && npm run build
+
+uvicorn:
+	poetry run uvicorn mealie.app:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9000
+
+mealie.app:
+	poetry run python mealie/app.py
+
+vue:
+	cd frontend && npm run serve
+
+mdocs:
+	cd docs && poetry run mkdocs serve
+
+docker-dev:
+	docker-compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml -p dev-mealie up --build
+
+docker-prod:
+	docker-compose -p mealie up --build -d
diff --git a/docs/docs/contributors/developers-guide/starting-dev-server.md b/docs/docs/contributors/developers-guide/starting-dev-server.md
index 2ec547e57..76341c01d 100644
--- a/docs/docs/contributors/developers-guide/starting-dev-server.md
+++ b/docs/docs/contributors/developers-guide/starting-dev-server.md
@@ -17,15 +17,48 @@ Prerequisites
 - Poetry
 - Nodejs
 - npm
+- Caddy
 
-Once the prerequisites are installed you can cd into the project base directory and run `make setup` to install the python and node dependencies. Once that is complete you can run `make backend` and `make vue` to start the backend and frontend servers. 
+Once the prerequisites are installed you can cd into the project base directory and run `make build` to install the python and node dependencies and build the frontend webroot.You will need to configure Caddy to serve the webroot and proxy the api & mdocs. Something along these lines would be a good starting point for `/etc/caddy/Caddyfile`:
+```
+{
+  auto_https off
+  admin off
+}
 
-## Make File Reference 
+:80 {
+  @proxied path /api/* /docs /openapi.json
+
+  root * /path/to/mealie.git/frontend/dist
+  encode gzip
+  uri strip_suffix /
+  
+  handle @proxied {
+    reverse_proxy http://127.0.0.1:9000 
+  }
+
+  handle {
+    try_files {path}.html {path} /
+    file_server 
+  }
+
+}
+```
+
+## Makefile Reference 
+
+### Prod environment
+`make build` installs dependencies and builds the frontend ready for prod use
+
+`make backend` Starts the backend server on port `9000` via uvicorn
+
+
+### Dev environment
 `make setup` installs python and node dependencies
 
-`make backend` Starts the backend server on port `9000`
+`make frontend` Starts the frontend server on port `8080` via npm serve
 
-`make vue` Starts the frontend server on port `8080`
+`make mealie.app` Starts the backend server on port `9000` directly from `mealie/app.py`
 
 `make mdocs` Starts the documentation server on port `8000`
 
@@ -46,4 +79,4 @@ Once the prerequisites are installed you can cd into the project base directory
 
     **Solution:** Create an empty /mealie/dist directory. This directory is served as static content by FastAPI. It is provided during the build process and may be missing in development. 
 
-Run into another issue? [Ask for help on discord](https://discord.gg/R6QDyJgbD2)
\ No newline at end of file
+Run into another issue? [Ask for help on discord](https://discord.gg/R6QDyJgbD2)
diff --git a/makefile b/makefile
deleted file mode 100644
index c4c75b277..000000000
--- a/makefile
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,24 +0,0 @@
-setup:
-	poetry install && \
-	cd frontend && \
-	npm install && \
-	cd ..
-
-backend:
-	source ./.venv/bin/activate && python mealie/app.py
-
-vue:
-	cd frontend && npm run serve
-
-mdocs:
-	source ./.venv/bin/activate && \
-	cd docs && \
-	mkdocs serve
-
-docker-dev:
-	docker-compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml -p dev-mealie up --build
-
-docker-prod:
-	docker-compose -p mealie up --build -d
-
-	
\ No newline at end of file