diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 4357996d..9a3e6414 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -117,6 +117,24 @@
                 <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                 <version>3.1.0</version>
                 <executions>
+                    <execution>
+                        <id>docker-up</id>
+                        <goals>
+                            <goal>exec</goal>
+                        </goals>
+                        <configuration>
+                            <executable>docker</executable>
+                            <arguments>
+                                <argument>compose</argument>
+                                <argument>-f</argument>
+                                <argument>docker-compose.dev.yml</argument>
+                                <argument>up</argument>
+                                <argument>-d</argument>
+                                <argument>--wait</argument>
+                                <argument>db</argument>
+                            </arguments>
+                        </configuration>
+                    </execution>
                     <execution>
                         <id>docker-down</id>
                         <goals>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/petshop/backend/DevStackApplication.java b/src/main/java/com/petshop/backend/DevStackApplication.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a049b7ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/com/petshop/backend/DevStackApplication.java
@@ -0,0 +1,154 @@
+package com.petshop.backend;
+
+import org.springframework.boot.builder.SpringApplicationBuilder;
+import org.springframework.context.ConfigurableApplicationContext;
+import org.springframework.context.event.ContextClosedEvent;
+
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.nio.file.Path;
+import java.nio.file.Paths;
+import java.time.Duration;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Locale;
+import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;
+import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
+import java.util.concurrent.ScheduledExecutorService;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
+
+public class DevStackApplication {
+
+    private static final Duration WATCH_INTERVAL = Duration.ofSeconds(2);
+
+    public static void main(String[] args) {
+        DevStackController controller = new DevStackController();
+        ConfigurableApplicationContext context = null;
+        CountDownLatch shutdownLatch = new CountDownLatch(1);
+
+        try {
+            controller.startDatabase();
+            context = new SpringApplicationBuilder(BackendApplication.class).run(args);
+            ConfigurableApplicationContext appContext = context;
+            context.addApplicationListener(event -> {
+                if (event instanceof ContextClosedEvent) {
+                    shutdownLatch.countDown();
+                }
+            });
+            controller.watchDatabase(appContext);
+            shutdownLatch.await();
+        } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
+            Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
+            throw new IllegalStateException("Dev stack interrupted", ex);
+        } finally {
+            controller.stopWatching();
+            if (context != null && context.isActive()) {
+                context.close();
+            }
+            controller.stopDatabase();
+        }
+    }
+
+    private static final class DevStackController {
+        private final Path projectDir = Paths.get("").toAbsolutePath();
+        private final AtomicBoolean shuttingDown = new AtomicBoolean(false);
+        private ScheduledExecutorService scheduler;
+
+        private void startDatabase() {
+            runCommand(composeCommand("up", "-d", "--wait", "db"));
+        }
+
+        private void stopDatabase() {
+            if (!shuttingDown.compareAndSet(false, true)) {
+                return;
+            }
+            stopWatching();
+            runCommand(composeCommand("stop", "db"));
+        }
+
+        private void watchDatabase(ConfigurableApplicationContext context) {
+            scheduler = Executors.newSingleThreadScheduledExecutor();
+            scheduler.scheduleWithFixedDelay(() -> {
+                if (shuttingDown.get()) {
+                    return;
+                }
+                if (!isDatabaseRunning()) {
+                    shuttingDown.set(true);
+                    if (context.isActive()) {
+                        context.close();
+                    }
+                }
+            }, WATCH_INTERVAL.toSeconds(), WATCH_INTERVAL.toSeconds(), TimeUnit.SECONDS);
+        }
+
+        private void stopWatching() {
+            if (scheduler != null) {
+                scheduler.shutdownNow();
+                scheduler = null;
+            }
+        }
+
+        private boolean isDatabaseRunning() {
+            CommandResult result = runCommand(composeCommand("ps", "--status", "running", "--services", "db"), false);
+            return result.exitCode == 0 && result.output.lines()
+                    .map(String::trim)
+                    .anyMatch("db"::equals);
+        }
+
+        private List<String> composeCommand(String... args) {
+            List<String> command = new ArrayList<>();
+            command.add(resolveDockerExecutable());
+            command.add("compose");
+            command.add("-f");
+            command.add("docker-compose.dev.yml");
+            for (String arg : args) {
+                command.add(arg);
+            }
+            return command;
+        }
+
+        private String resolveDockerExecutable() {
+            String os = System.getProperty("os.name", "").toLowerCase(Locale.ROOT);
+            return os.contains("win") ? "docker.exe" : "docker";
+        }
+
+        private void runCommand(List<String> command) {
+            CommandResult result = runCommand(command, true);
+            if (result.exitCode != 0) {
+                throw new IllegalStateException(result.output.isBlank() ? "Command failed: " + String.join(" ", command) : result.output);
+            }
+        }
+
+        private CommandResult runCommand(List<String> command, boolean printOutput) {
+            ProcessBuilder builder = new ProcessBuilder(command);
+            builder.directory(projectDir.toFile());
+            builder.redirectErrorStream(true);
+
+            try {
+                Process process = builder.start();
+                StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder();
+                try (BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()))) {
+                    String line;
+                    while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
+                        output.append(line).append(System.lineSeparator());
+                        if (printOutput) {
+                            System.out.println(line);
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
+                int exitCode = process.waitFor();
+                return new CommandResult(exitCode, output.toString().trim());
+            } catch (IOException ex) {
+                throw new IllegalStateException("Unable to run docker command", ex);
+            } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
+                Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
+                throw new IllegalStateException("Docker command interrupted", ex);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    private record CommandResult(int exitCode, String output) {
+    }
+}