diff --git a/js/apps/keycloak-server/README.md b/js/apps/keycloak-server/README.md
index 06359bd8cb..828a7cacb1 100644
--- a/js/apps/keycloak-server/README.md
+++ b/js/apps/keycloak-server/README.md
@@ -18,5 +18,15 @@ pnpm run start
 
 This will download the [Nightly version](https://github.com/keycloak/keycloak/releases/tag/nightly) of the Keycloak server and run it locally on port `8180`. If a previously downloaded version was found in the `server/` directory then that one will be used instead. If you want to download the latest Nightly version you can remove the server directory before running the command to start the server.
 
+If you want to run with a local Quarkus distribution of Keycloak for development purposes, you can do so by running this command instead: 
+
+```bash
+pnpm run start -- --local
+```
+
+**All other arguments will be passed through to the underlying Keycloak server.**
+
 In order for the development version of the Admin UI to work you will have to import a custom client to the Keycloak server. This is only required during development as the development server for the Admin UI runs on a different port. This client will be imported automatically under the name `security-admin-console-v2` when the Keycloak server starts.
 
+This client only allows redirects from/to "localhost:8080" so be sure either modify the client json in `./scripts` or only attempt to authenticate and redirect from that address
+
diff --git a/js/apps/keycloak-server/package.json b/js/apps/keycloak-server/package.json
index 48e5667b1f..ef7ca61069 100644
--- a/js/apps/keycloak-server/package.json
+++ b/js/apps/keycloak-server/package.json
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@
   "type": "module",
   "scripts": {
     "start": "wireit",
-    "clear-data": "rm -r ./server/data"
+    "delete-data": "rm -r ./server/data",
+    "delete-server": "rm -r ./server"
   },
   "wireit": {
     "start": {
diff --git a/js/apps/keycloak-server/scripts/start-server.js b/js/apps/keycloak-server/scripts/start-server.js
index 19bb6cf366..515ec5b5a7 100755
--- a/js/apps/keycloak-server/scripts/start-server.js
+++ b/js/apps/keycloak-server/scripts/start-server.js
@@ -9,30 +9,39 @@ import path from "node:path";
 import { pipeline } from "node:stream/promises";
 import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
 import { extract } from "tar-fs";
+import { parseArgs } from "node:util";
 
 const DIR_NAME = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
 const SERVER_DIR = path.resolve(DIR_NAME, "../server");
+const LOCAL_QUARKUS = path.resolve(DIR_NAME, "../../../../quarkus/dist/target");
+const LOCAL_DIST_NAME = "keycloak-999.0.0-SNAPSHOT.tar.gz";
 const SCRIPT_EXTENSION = process.platform === "win32" ? ".bat" : ".sh";
 const ADMIN_USERNAME = "admin";
 const ADMIN_PASSWORD = "admin";
-const AUTH_DELAY = 5000;
+const AUTH_DELAY = 10000;
 const AUTH_RETRY_LIMIT = 3;
 
+const options = {
+  local: {
+    type: "boolean",
+  },
+};
+
 await startServer();
 
 async function startServer() {
-  await downloadServer();
+  let { scriptArgs, keycloakArgs } = handleArgs(process.argv.slice(2));
+
+  await downloadServer(scriptArgs.local);
 
   console.info("Starting server…");
-
-  const args = process.argv.slice(2);
   const child = spawn(
     path.join(SERVER_DIR, `bin/kc${SCRIPT_EXTENSION}`),
     [
       "start-dev",
       "--http-port=8180",
       "--features=account3,admin-fine-grained-authz,declarative-user-profile",
-      ...args,
+      ...keycloakArgs,
     ],
     {
       env: {
@@ -50,7 +59,27 @@ async function startServer() {
   await importClient();
 }
 
-async function downloadServer() {
+function handleArgs(args) {
+  const { values, tokens } = parseArgs({
+    args,
+    options,
+    strict: false,
+    tokens: true,
+  });
+  // we need to remove the args that belong to the script so that we can pass the rest through to keycloak
+  tokens
+    .filter((token) => Object.hasOwn(options, token.name))
+    .forEach((token) => {
+      let tokenRaw = token.rawName;
+      if (token.value) {
+        tokenRaw += `=${token.value}`;
+      }
+      args.splice(args.indexOf(tokenRaw), 1);
+    });
+  return { scriptArgs: values, keycloakArgs: args };
+}
+
+async function downloadServer(local) {
   const directoryExists = fs.existsSync(SERVER_DIR);
 
   if (directoryExists) {
@@ -58,11 +87,17 @@ async function downloadServer() {
     return;
   }
 
-  console.info("Downloading and extracting server…");
-
-  const nightlyAsset = await getNightlyAsset();
-  const assetStream = await getAssetAsStream(nightlyAsset);
-
+  let assetStream;
+  if (local) {
+    console.info(`Looking for ${LOCAL_DIST_NAME} at ${LOCAL_QUARKUS}`);
+    assetStream = fs.createReadStream(
+      path.join(LOCAL_QUARKUS, LOCAL_DIST_NAME),
+    );
+  } else {
+    console.info("Downloading and extracting server…");
+    const nightlyAsset = await getNightlyAsset();
+    assetStream = await getAssetAsStream(nightlyAsset);
+  }
   await extractTarball(assetStream, SERVER_DIR, { strip: 1 });
 }