diff --git a/docs/guides/pom.xml b/docs/guides/pom.xml
index c3fcf4f2ad..3e4496cbdb 100644
--- a/docs/guides/pom.xml
+++ b/docs/guides/pom.xml
@@ -28,7 +28,8 @@
     <name>Keycloak Guides</name>
     <artifactId>keycloak-guides</artifactId>
     <description>Keycloak Guides</description>
-    <packaging>pom</packaging>
+    <!-- although this doesn't provide a JAR, this is necessary to call the DocsBuildDebugUtil class from an IDE for debugging -->
+    <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
     <dependencies>
         <dependency>
@@ -40,6 +41,9 @@
 
     <build>
         <plugins>
+            <plugin>
+                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
+            </plugin>
             <plugin>
                 <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
                 <version>3.3.0</version>
diff --git a/docs/guides/src/test/java/org/keycloak/guides/DocsBuildDebugUtil.java b/docs/guides/src/test/java/org/keycloak/guides/DocsBuildDebugUtil.java
index 1e8eb207dd..777ff87a2d 100644
--- a/docs/guides/src/test/java/org/keycloak/guides/DocsBuildDebugUtil.java
+++ b/docs/guides/src/test/java/org/keycloak/guides/DocsBuildDebugUtil.java
@@ -2,14 +2,25 @@ package org.keycloak.guides;
 
 import freemarker.template.TemplateException;
 import org.keycloak.guides.maven.GuideBuilder;
+import org.w3c.dom.Document;
+import org.w3c.dom.Element;
+import org.w3c.dom.Node;
+import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
+import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
 
+import javax.xml.XMLConstants;
+import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
+import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
+import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.Properties;
 
 public class DocsBuildDebugUtil {
 
-    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, TemplateException {
+    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, TemplateException, ParserConfigurationException, SAXException {
         File usrDir = new File(System.getProperty("user.dir"));
+        Properties properties = readPropertiesFromPomXml();
 
         for (File srcDir: usrDir.toPath().resolve("docs/guides").toFile().listFiles(d -> d.isDirectory() && !d.getName().equals("templates"))) {
             if (srcDir.getName().equals("target") || srcDir.getName().equals("src")) {
@@ -18,10 +29,32 @@ public class DocsBuildDebugUtil {
             }
             File targetDir = usrDir.toPath().resolve("target/generated-guides/" + srcDir.getName()).toFile();
             targetDir.mkdirs();
-            GuideBuilder builder = new GuideBuilder(srcDir, targetDir, null);
+
+            // put here all the entries needed from the parent pom.xml
+            GuideBuilder builder = new GuideBuilder(srcDir, targetDir, null, properties);
             builder.build();
-            System.out.println("Guides generated to: " + targetDir.getAbsolutePath().toString());
+            System.out.println("Guides generated to: " + targetDir.getAbsolutePath());
         }
     }
 
+    private static Properties readPropertiesFromPomXml() throws ParserConfigurationException, SAXException, IOException {
+        Properties properties = new Properties();
+
+        DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
+        dbf.setFeature(XMLConstants.FEATURE_SECURE_PROCESSING, true);
+
+        // parse pom.xml file - avoid adding Maven as a dependency here
+        DocumentBuilder db = dbf.newDocumentBuilder();
+        Document doc = db.parse(new File("pom.xml"));
+        NodeList propertiesXml = doc.getDocumentElement().getElementsByTagName("properties").item(0).getChildNodes();
+        for(int i = 0; i < propertiesXml.getLength(); ++i) {
+            Node item = propertiesXml.item(i);
+            if (!(item instanceof Element)) {
+                continue;
+            }
+            properties.put(item.getNodeName(), item.getTextContent());
+        }
+        return properties;
+    }
+
 }
diff --git a/docs/maven-plugin/src/main/java/org/keycloak/guides/maven/GuideBuilder.java b/docs/maven-plugin/src/main/java/org/keycloak/guides/maven/GuideBuilder.java
index e124a21812..3a624d2fba 100644
--- a/docs/maven-plugin/src/main/java/org/keycloak/guides/maven/GuideBuilder.java
+++ b/docs/maven-plugin/src/main/java/org/keycloak/guides/maven/GuideBuilder.java
@@ -2,13 +2,13 @@ package org.keycloak.guides.maven;
 
 import freemarker.template.TemplateException;
 import org.apache.maven.plugin.logging.Log;
-import org.apache.maven.project.MavenProject;
 import org.keycloak.common.Version;
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Properties;
 
 public class GuideBuilder {
 
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ public class GuideBuilder {
     private final File targetDir;
     private final Log log;
 
-    public GuideBuilder(File srcDir, File targetDir, Log log, MavenProject project) throws IOException {
+    public GuideBuilder(File srcDir, File targetDir, Log log, Properties properties) throws IOException {
         this.srcDir = srcDir;
         this.targetDir = targetDir;
         this.log = log;
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ public class GuideBuilder {
         Map<String, Object> globalAttributes = new HashMap<>();
         globalAttributes.put("ctx", new Context(srcDir));
         globalAttributes.put("version", Version.VERSION);
-        globalAttributes.put("properties", project.getProperties());
+        globalAttributes.put("properties", properties);
 
         this.freeMarker = new FreeMarker(srcDir.getParentFile(), globalAttributes);
     }
diff --git a/docs/maven-plugin/src/main/java/org/keycloak/guides/maven/GuideMojo.java b/docs/maven-plugin/src/main/java/org/keycloak/guides/maven/GuideMojo.java
index bf5e5c8870..5f1e54c4e0 100644
--- a/docs/maven-plugin/src/main/java/org/keycloak/guides/maven/GuideMojo.java
+++ b/docs/maven-plugin/src/main/java/org/keycloak/guides/maven/GuideMojo.java
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ public class GuideMojo extends AbstractMojo {
                     log.info("Guide dir: " + srcDir.getAbsolutePath());
                     log.info("Target dir: " + targetDir.getAbsolutePath());
 
-                    GuideBuilder g = new GuideBuilder(srcDir, targetDir, log, project);
+                    GuideBuilder g = new GuideBuilder(srcDir, targetDir, log, project.getProperties());
                     g.build();
                 }
             }