diff --git a/.env b/.env
deleted file mode 100644
index dc223bf0b..000000000
--- a/.env
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-# required for vscode testing activity to discover tests
-DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=tests.settings
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.env.sample.docker b/.env.sample.docker
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ffdc7654c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.env.sample.docker
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+DEBUG=0  #  Change to any non-zero number to enable debug mode
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index d64e1776b..d238e956a 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -57,3 +57,6 @@ db.sqlite3
 venv/
 
 /tests/app/idp/static
+
+# files with environment variables
+.env
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index e2da60020..6b9632b18 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ Peter Karman
 Peter McDonald
 Petr Dlouhý
 pySilver
+Raphael Lullis
 Rodney Richardson
 Rustem Saiargaliev
 Rustem Saiargaliev
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8dfe6c3e5..db4b33eae 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ## [unreleased]
 ### Added
 * #1506 Support for Wildcard Origin and Redirect URIs
+
+### Changed
+* #1548 Docker and docker-compose to run test applications
+
 <!--
 ### Changed
 ### Deprecated
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index e501e84d2..b5881b598 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -4,34 +4,6 @@
 # tests/app/idp. This way we build images with the source
 # code from the repos for validation before publishing packages.
 
-FROM python:3.11.6-slim as builder
-
-ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE 1
-ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED 1
-
-ENV DEBUG=False
-ENV ALLOWED_HOSTS="*"
-ENV TEMPLATES_DIRS="/data/templates"
-ENV STATIC_ROOT="/data/static"
-ENV DATABASE_URL="sqlite:////data/db.sqlite3"
-
-RUN apt-get update
-# Build Deps
-RUN apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends gcc libc-dev python3-dev git openssh-client libpq-dev file libev-dev
-# bundle code in a virtual env to make copying to the final image without all the upstream stuff easier.
-RUN python -m venv /opt/venv
-ENV PATH="/opt/venv/bin:$PATH"
-# need to update pip and setuptools for pep517 support required by gevent.
-RUN pip install --upgrade pip
-RUN pip install --upgrade setuptools
-COPY . /code
-WORKDIR /code/tests/app/idp
-RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
-RUN pip install gunicorn
-RUN python manage.py collectstatic --noinput
-
-
-
 FROM python:3.11.6-slim
 
 # allow embed sha1 at build time as release.
@@ -41,27 +13,29 @@ LABEL org.opencontainers.image.authors="https://jazzband.co/projects/django-oaut
 LABEL org.opencontainers.image.source="https://github.com/jazzband/django-oauth-toolkit"
 LABEL org.opencontainers.image.revision=${GIT_SHA1}
 
+RUN pip install --upgrade pip setuptools uv
 
 ENV SENTRY_RELEASE=${GIT_SHA1}
+ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE 1
+ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED 1
+ENV UV_CACHE_DIR /var/cache/uv
+ENV UV_PROJECT_ENVIRONMENT /opt/dot/venv
+
+RUN apt-get update
+# Build Deps
+RUN apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends libc-dev python3-dev file libev-dev
+# bundle code in a virtual env to make copying to the final image without all the upstream stuff easier.
+ENV PYTHONPATH="/code/tests/app/idp:$PYTHONPATH"
+# need to update pip and setuptools for pep517 support required by gevent.
 
-# disable debug mode, but allow all hosts by default when running in docker
-ENV DEBUG=False
-ENV ALLOWED_HOSTS="*"
-ENV TEMPLATES_DIRS="/data/templates"
-ENV STATIC_ROOT="/data/static"
-ENV DATABASE_URL="sqlite:////data/db.sqlite3"
 
+WORKDIR /code
+COPY ./pyproject.toml /code
+COPY ./uv.lock /code
+COPY ./oauth2_provider /code/oauth2_provider
 
+RUN uv sync --extra dev
 
+COPY ./tests /code/tests
 
-COPY --from=builder /opt/venv /opt/venv
-ENV PATH="/opt/venv/bin:$PATH"
-COPY --from=builder /code /code
-RUN mkdir -p /code/tests/app/idp/static /code/tests/app/idp/templates
 WORKDIR /code/tests/app/idp
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
-    libpq5 \
-    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
-EXPOSE 80
-VOLUME ["/data" ]
-CMD ["gunicorn",  "idp.wsgi:application",  "-w 4 -b 0.0.0.0:80 --chdir=/code --worker-tmp-dir /dev/shm --timeout 120  --error-logfile '-' --log-level debug --access-logfile '-'"]
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 3a3459fde..4d77ba56b 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,28 +1,50 @@
-volumes:
-  idp-data:
-
+x-idp-network: &idp-network
+  networks:
+    - idp-net
 
 x-idp: &idp
+  <<: *idp-network
   image: django-oauth-toolkit/idp
+  build: .
+  stdin_open: true
+  tty: true
   volumes:
+    - ./:/code
     - idp-data:/data
+    - static-data:/var/oauth/static
+  command: uv run django-admin runserver 0.0.0.0:80
+
+  environment: &fediverser-service-environment
+    DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE: idp.settings
+    STATIC_ROOT: /var/oauth/static
+    ALLOWED_HOSTS: "*"
+    TEMPLATES_DIRS: /code/tests/app/idp/templates
+    DATABASE_URL: sqlite:////data/db.sqlite3
+
+  env_file:
+    - .env
 
 services:
+  idp-collectstatic:
+    <<: *idp
+    command: uv run django-admin collectstatic --noinput
+    restart: on-failure
+
   idp-migrate:
     <<: *idp
-    build: .
-    command: python manage.py migrate
+    command: uv run django-admin migrate
+    depends_on:
+      - idp-collectstatic
 
   idp-loaddata:
     <<: *idp
-    command: python manage.py loaddata fixtures/seed.json
+    command: uv run django-admin loaddata fixtures/seed.json
     depends_on:
       idp-migrate:
         condition: service_completed_successfully
 
   idp:
     <<: *idp
-    command: gunicorn idp.wsgi:application -w 4 -b 0.0.0.0:80 --chdir=/code --timeout 120  --error-logfile '-' --log-level debug --access-logfile '-'
     ports:
       # map to dev port.
       - "8000:80"
@@ -37,4 +59,11 @@ services:
       # map to dev port.
       - "5173:3000"
     depends_on:
-      - idp
\ No newline at end of file
+      - idp
+
+networks:
+  idp-net:
+
+volumes:
+  idp-data:
+  static-data:
diff --git a/docs/contributing.rst b/docs/contributing.rst
index 4f0b88b32..e728a77cf 100644
--- a/docs/contributing.rst
+++ b/docs/contributing.rst
@@ -12,10 +12,30 @@ This is a `Jazzband <https://jazzband.co>`_ project. By contributing you agree t
 Setup
 =====
 
-Fork ``django-oauth-toolkit`` repository on `GitHub <https://github.com/jazzband/django-oauth-toolkit>`_ and follow these steps:
 
- * Create a virtualenv and activate it
- * Clone your repository locally
+Fork ``django-oauth-toolkit`` repository on `GitHub
+<https://github.com/jazzband/django-oauth-toolkit>`_ and clone to your
+development machine. The recommended method to manage your development
+environment is to use `uv <https://docs.astral.sh/uv/>`_, but you can
+also use pip directly to manage the virtual environment.
+
+
+Running the test IDP and RP applications (Docker)
+=================================================
+
+During development, it might be helpful to run an application that
+actually exercises the many authentication flows. We provide a django
+project that can be set up to run as the Identity Provider (IDP) and a
+separate Javascript application that works as the Relying Party (RP).
+If you have docker and docker-compose configured, you can get them
+both the services running with a few simple steps:
+
+ - make a copy of the ``.env.sample.docker`` to ``.env`` and make changes as desired
+ - Run ``docker-compose up -d --build``
+
+The IDP service will be available on `http://localhost:8000` and the
+RP service will be available on `http://localhost:5173`
+
 
 Issues
 ======
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 401d33cab..c76992e54 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -45,7 +45,9 @@ dev = [
 	"pytest",
 	"pytest-cov",
 	"m2r",
-	"sphinx-rtd-theme",
+    "sphinx-rtd-theme",
+    "django-cors-headers",
+    "django-environ",
 ]
 
 [project.urls]
diff --git a/tests/app/idp/idp/urls.py b/tests/app/idp/idp/urls.py
index 90e8abd48..edaaa0236 100644
--- a/tests/app/idp/idp/urls.py
+++ b/tests/app/idp/idp/urls.py
@@ -15,11 +15,13 @@
     2. Add a URL to urlpatterns:  path('blog/', include('blog.urls'))
 """
 
+from django.conf import settings
+from django.conf.urls.static import static
 from django.contrib import admin
 from django.urls import include, path
 
 
-urlpatterns = [
+urlpatterns = static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT) + [
     path("admin/", admin.site.urls),
     path("o/", include("oauth2_provider.urls", namespace="oauth2_provider")),
     path("accounts/", include("django.contrib.auth.urls")),
diff --git a/tests/app/idp/requirements.txt b/tests/app/idp/requirements.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index ec77fcf9d..000000000
--- a/tests/app/idp/requirements.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-Django>=4.2,<=5.1
-django-cors-headers==3.14.0
-django-environ==0.11.2
-
--e ../../../