diff --git a/docs/CustomizingAzdParameters.md b/docs/CustomizingAzdParameters.md
index 57e1942d..d1c315d1 100644
--- a/docs/CustomizingAzdParameters.md
+++ b/docs/CustomizingAzdParameters.md
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ By default this template will use the environment name as the prefix to prevent
 | `AZURE_ENV_JUMPBOX_ADMIN_PASSWORD`     | string  | `JumpboxAdminP@ssw0rd1234!` | Specifies the administrator password for the Jumpbox Virtual Machine.      |
 | `AZURE_ENV_COSMOS_SECONDARY_LOCATION`  | string  | *(not set by default)*      | Specifies the secondary region for Cosmos DB. Required if `enableRedundancy` is `true`. |
 | `AZURE_EXISTING_AI_PROJECT_RESOURCE_ID`  | string  | *(not set by default)*      | Specifies the existing AI Foundry Project Resource ID if it needs to be reused. |
+| `APP_ENV`  | string  | `prod`     | Set app environment as `dev` for local debugging |
 ---
 
 ## How to Set a Parameter
diff --git a/docs/DeploymentGuide.md b/docs/DeploymentGuide.md
index eb8042df..918c64e7 100644
--- a/docs/DeploymentGuide.md
+++ b/docs/DeploymentGuide.md
@@ -225,6 +225,10 @@ Additional Steps
    
     If you chose to enable authentication for the deployment, follow the steps in [App Authentication](../docs/AddAuthentication.md)
 
+## For local Debugging
+
+Make sure to set `APP_ENV` to `dev` in `src\backend\.env` file.
+
 ## Running the application
 
 To help you get started, sample Informix queries have been included in the data/informix/functions and data/informix/simple directories. You can choose to upload these files to test the application.