diff --git a/api/Makefile b/api/Makefile
index b177405484bf..fb9accc4d810 100644
--- a/api/Makefile
+++ b/api/Makefile
@@ -95,9 +95,17 @@ django-collect-static:
 	poetry run python manage.py collectstatic --noinput
 
 .PHONY: serve
-serve:
+serve: docker-up
 	poetry run flagsmith start --reload api
-		
+
+.PHONY: run-task-processor
+run-task-processor: docker-up
+	poetry run flagsmith start --reload --bind 0.0.0.0:8001 task-processor
+
+.PHONY: serve-with-task-processor
+serve-with-task-processor: TASK_RUN_METHOD=TASK_PROCESSOR
+serve-with-task-processor:
+	make -j2 serve run-task-processor
 
 .PHONY: generate-ld-client-types
 generate-ld-client-types:
diff --git a/docs/docs/deployment/hosting/locally-api.md b/docs/docs/deployment/hosting/locally-api.md
index 2cfbd21d5fe7..73e8629c76e9 100644
--- a/docs/docs/deployment/hosting/locally-api.md
+++ b/docs/docs/deployment/hosting/locally-api.md
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ found in the following section entitled 'Databases'.
 cd api
 make install
 make django-migrate
-make serve
+make serve-with-task-processor  # Or `make serve` for API + synchronous tasks (limited functionality)
 ```
 
 You can now visit `http://<your-server-domain:8000>/api/v1/users/config/init/` to create an initial Superuser and