diff --git a/ci/dev/image/run.sh b/ci/dev/image/run.sh
index 0557f1b2..3d5e15dd 100755
--- a/ci/dev/image/run.sh
+++ b/ci/dev/image/run.sh
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ main() {
     -e HOME="/src/.home" \
     -e USER="coder" \
     -e GITHUB_TOKEN \
+    -e KEEP_MODULES \
+    -e MINIFY \
     -w /src \
     -p 127.0.0.1:8080:8080 \
     -u "$(id -u):$(id -g)" \
diff --git a/doc/CONTRIBUTING.md b/doc/CONTRIBUTING.md
index a15e25d2..62c20f91 100644
--- a/doc/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/doc/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -99,6 +99,13 @@ yarn test:standalone-release
 yarn package
 ```
 
+For a faster release build you can also run:
+
+```
+KEEP_MODULES=1 ./ci/steps/release.sh
+node ./release
+```
+
 ## Structure
 
 The `code-server` script serves an HTTP API to login and start a remote VS Code process.