diff --git a/workspaces/controller/.dockerignore b/workspaces/controller/.dockerignore
index a3aab7af..1d1bdf66 100644
--- a/workspaces/controller/.dockerignore
+++ b/workspaces/controller/.dockerignore
@@ -1,3 +1,2 @@
 # More info: https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#dockerignore-file
 # Ignore build and test binaries.
-bin/
diff --git a/workspaces/controller/DEVELOPMENT.md b/workspaces/controller/DEVELOPMENT.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f567829d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/workspaces/controller/DEVELOPMENT.md
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+# Development Guide
+
+## Table of Contents
+
+- [Development Guide](#development-guide)
+  - [Table of Contents](#table-of-contents)
+  - [Introduction](#introduction)
+  - [Prerequisites](#prerequisites)
+  - [Getting Started](#getting-started)
+    - [In an existing cluster](#in-an-existing-cluster)
+    - [Using kind](#using-kind)
+  - [Teardown](#teardown)
+  - [Pull Request Checklist](#pull-request-checklist)
+    - [Best Practices](#best-practices)
+  - [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting)
+    - ["Build Failed: failed to dial gRPC: unable to upgrade to h2c, received 404"](#build-failed-failed-to-dial-grpc-unable-to-upgrade-to-h2c-received-404)
+
+## Introduction
+
+This guide will help you set up a development environment for the Kubeflow Notebooks project.
+
+## Prerequisites
+
+- Go >= 1.22
+- Kubectl >= 1.22
+- A Kubernetes cluster (e.g. [kind](https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/#installation-and-usage))
+- Cert-manager installed in the cluster, see [cert-manager installation guide](https://cert-manager.io/docs/installation/#default-static-install)
+
+## Getting Started
+
+This project uses [Tilt](https://tilt.dev/) to manage the development environment. Tilt will watch for changes in the project and automatically rebuild the Docker image and redeploy the application in the **current Kubernetes context**.
+
+### Cluster Selection
+
+Make sure you have a Kubernetes cluster running and `kubectl` is configured to use it.
+    * `kubectl config current-context` will report which context Tilt will interact with
+
+💡 For development purposes, you may find using `kind` to be beneficial.  You can create your own local cluster with the following command:
+- `kind create cluster`
+    - This command will also change the `current-context` of `kubectl` to the `kind` cluster that is created
+
+### Running Tilt
+
+1. Run the following command to start Tilt:
+
+```bash
+make -C devenv tilt-up
+```
+
+ℹ️ Please make sure you are in the `workspaces/controller` directory when executing the command.
+
+2. Hit `space` to open the Tilt dashboard in your browser and here you can see the logs and status of every resource deployed.
+
+## Teardown
+
+To stop Tilt and remove all resources created by it, run:
+
+```bash
+make -C devenv tilt-down
+```
+
+ℹ️ Please make sure you are in the `workspaces/controller` directory when executing the command.
+
+## Pull Request Checklist
+
+Before raising a PR, ensure you run the following checks to maintain code quality and reliability:
+
+1. **Linting**
+   ```bash
+   make lint
+   ```
+   - This runs static code analysis to ensure code style consistency
+   - Fix any linting errors before proceeding
+
+2. **Unit Tests**
+   ```bash
+   make test
+   ```
+   - Runs all unit tests in the project
+   - Ensure all tests pass before submitting changes
+   - Consider adding new tests for any new functionality
+
+3. **End-to-End Tests**
+   ```bash
+   make test-e2e
+   ```
+   - Validates the complete workflow of the application
+   - Requires a running Kubernetes cluster
+
+### Best Practices
+
+- Run tests locally before pushing changes
+- Write meaningful commit messages
+- Keep PRs focused and small
+- Update documentation if you change functionality
+- Consider adding new tests for new features
+- Run all checks in sequence before final submission
+
+## Troubleshooting
+
+### "Build Failed: failed to dial gRPC: unable to upgrade to h2c, received 404"
+
+If you see the following error message when tilt builds the image, try setting `DOCKER_BUILDKIT=0`:
+
+```bash
+DOCKER_BUILDKIT=0 make -C devenv tilt-up
+```
diff --git a/workspaces/controller/devenv/.gitignore b/workspaces/controller/devenv/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7c51d2be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/workspaces/controller/devenv/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bin/*
+tilt_config.json
diff --git a/workspaces/controller/devenv/Makefile b/workspaces/controller/devenv/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ae54603e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/workspaces/controller/devenv/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+detected_OS := $(shell uname -s)
+real_OS := $(detected_OS)
+arch := $(shell uname -m)
+goarch := $(shell go env GOARCH)
+ifeq ($(detected_OS),Darwin)
+	detected_OS := mac
+	real_OS := darwin
+endif
+ifeq ($(detected_OS),Linux)
+	detected_OS := linux
+	real_OS := linux
+endif
+
+## Cleanup targets
+
+.PHONY: cleanup-crds
+cleanup-crds:
+	@echo "Cleaning up CRDs..."
+	@kubectl delete -f ../config/crd/bases/ || true
+
+## Requirements
+
+.PHONY: check-cert-manager
+check-cert-manager: cmctl
+	@echo "Verifying cert-manager installation..."
+	@$(LOCALBIN)/cmctl check api > /dev/null 2>&1 || (printf "cert-manager is either not installed or not ready. Please install cert-manager or wait until it becomes ready.\nInstallation instructions can be found here: https://cert-manager.io/docs/installation/\n\n" && exit 1)
+	@echo "cert-manager is installed and ready."
+
+## Location to install dependencies to
+LOCALBIN ?= $(shell pwd)/bin
+$(LOCALBIN):
+	mkdir -p $(LOCALBIN)
+
+## Tool Binaries
+TILT ?= $(LOCALBIN)/tilt
+CMCTL ?= $(LOCALBIN)/cmctl
+
+## Tool Versions
+TILT_VERSION := 0.33.22
+CMCTL_VERSION := 2.1.1
+
+.PHONY: cmctl
+.PHONY: $(CMCTL)
+cmctl: $(CMCTL)
+$(CMCTL): $(LOCALBIN)
+	test -s $(LOCALBIN)/cmctl || curl -fsSL https://github.com/cert-manager/cmctl/releases/download/v$(CMCTL_VERSION)/cmctl_$(real_OS)_$(goarch).tar.gz | tar -xz -C $(LOCALBIN) cmctl
+
+.PHONY: tilt
+.PHONY: $(TILT)
+tilt: $(TILT)
+$(TILT): $(LOCALBIN)
+	test -s $(LOCALBIN)/tilt || curl -fsSL https://github.com/tilt-dev/tilt/releases/download/v$(TILT_VERSION)/tilt.$(TILT_VERSION).$(detected_OS).$(arch).tar.gz | tar -xz -C $(LOCALBIN) tilt
+
+tilt-up: tilt check-cert-manager
+	$(LOCALBIN)/tilt up
+
+tilt-down: tilt cleanup-crds
+	$(LOCALBIN)/tilt down
diff --git a/workspaces/controller/devenv/Tiltfile b/workspaces/controller/devenv/Tiltfile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f6dc968e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/workspaces/controller/devenv/Tiltfile
@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+load("ext://restart_process", "docker_build_with_restart")
+
+load_dynamic("./configs/tiltfiles/Tiltfile.setup")
+
+config.define_string_list("services")
+
+parsed_config = config.parse()
+
+for service in parsed_config.get("services", []):
+  load_dynamic("./configs/tiltfiles/Tiltfile.%s" % (service))
+
+manifests = kustomize("../config/default")
+
+objects = decode_yaml_stream(manifests)
+
+for o in objects:
+    if o["kind"] == "Deployment" and o.get("metadata").get("name") in ["workspace-controller-controller-manager"]:
+        o["spec"]["template"]["spec"]["securityContext"] = {"runAsNonRoot": False, "readOnlyRootFilesystem": False}
+        o["spec"]["template"]["spec"]["containers"][0]["imagePullPolicy"] = "Always"
+
+overridden_manifests = encode_yaml_stream(objects)
+
+k8s_yaml(overridden_manifests, allow_duplicates=True)
+
+local_resource(
+    "cert-manager-req-check",
+    serve_cmd="while true; do sleep 86400; done",
+    labels="requirements",
+    readiness_probe=probe(
+        exec=exec_action(
+            command=["/bin/sh", "-c", "./bin/cmctl check api"]
+        ), initial_delay_secs=5, timeout_secs=60
+    )
+)
+
+k8s_resource(
+    new_name="certs",
+    objects=[
+        "workspace-controller-serving-cert:certificate",
+        "workspace-controller-selfsigned-issuer:issuer"
+    ],
+    labels="controller",
+    resource_deps=[
+        "controller-namespace",
+        "cert-manager-req-check"
+    ]
+)
+
+k8s_resource(
+    new_name="reqs",
+    objects=[
+       "workspace-controller-controller-manager:serviceaccount",
+       "workspace-controller-leader-election-role:role",
+       "workspace-controller-manager-role:clusterrole",
+       "workspace-controller-workspace-editor-role:clusterrole",
+       "workspace-controller-workspace-viewer-role:clusterrole",
+       "workspace-controller-workspacekind-editor-role:clusterrole",
+       "workspace-controller-workspacekind-viewer-role:clusterrole",
+       "workspace-controller-leader-election-rolebinding:rolebinding",
+       "workspace-controller-manager-rolebinding:clusterrolebinding",
+       "workspace-controller-validating-webhook-configuration:validatingwebhookconfiguration"
+    ],
+    labels="controller",
+    resource_deps=[
+        "controller-namespace"
+    ]
+)
+
+k8s_resource(
+    new_name="crds",
+    objects=[
+       "workspacekinds.kubeflow.org:customresourcedefinition",
+       "workspaces.kubeflow.org:customresourcedefinition"
+    ],
+    labels="controller",
+    resource_deps=[
+        "controller-namespace",
+    ]
+)
+
+k8s_resource(
+    new_name="controller-namespace",
+    objects=["workspace-controller-system:Namespace:default"],
+    labels="requirements"
+)
+
+k8s_resource(
+    workload="workspace-controller-controller-manager",
+    new_name="controller",
+    labels="controller",
+    resource_deps=[
+        "controller-namespace",
+        "cert-manager-req-check",
+        "certs"
+    ]
+)
+
+local_resource(
+    "manager-bin",
+    "CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go build -o bin/manager cmd/main.go",
+    dir = "../",
+    deps = [
+        "../cmd",
+        "../internal",
+        "../go.mod",
+        "../go.sum",
+    ],
+    labels="controller",
+)
+
+docker_build_with_restart(
+    "ghcr.io/kubeflow/notebooks/workspace-controller",
+    context = "../",
+    dockerfile = "../tilt.dockerfile",
+    entrypoint = ["/manager"],
+    only=[
+      "bin/",
+    ],
+    live_update = [
+        sync("../bin/manager", "/manager"),
+    ],
+)
diff --git a/workspaces/controller/devenv/configs/tiltfiles/Tiltfile.setup b/workspaces/controller/devenv/configs/tiltfiles/Tiltfile.setup
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2bed6f56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/workspaces/controller/devenv/configs/tiltfiles/Tiltfile.setup
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# Disable analytics
+analytics_settings(False)
+
+update_settings(k8s_upsert_timeout_secs = 120)
diff --git a/workspaces/controller/tilt.dockerfile b/workspaces/controller/tilt.dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a49ee054
--- /dev/null
+++ b/workspaces/controller/tilt.dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+FROM alpine:3.12
+
+WORKDIR /
+
+COPY bin/manager /manager
+
+ENTRYPOINT ["/manager"]