diff --git a/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-java/lib/Main.ts b/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-java/lib/Main.ts
index 30b7d2bbc..986ef242e 100644
--- a/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-java/lib/Main.ts
+++ b/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-java/lib/Main.ts
@@ -2,36 +2,60 @@
 // The module 'vscode' contains the VS Code extensibility API
 // Import the module and reference it with the alias vscode in your code below
 
+import * as net from 'net';
+
 import * as VSCode from 'vscode';
 import * as Path from 'path';
 import * as FS from 'fs';
 import * as Net from 'net';
 import * as ChildProcess from 'child_process';
-import {LanguageClient, LanguageClientOptions, SettingMonitor, ServerOptions, StreamInfo} from 'vscode-languageclient';
-import {TextDocument} from 'vscode';
+import { LanguageClient, LanguageClientOptions, SettingMonitor, ServerOptions, StreamInfo } from 'vscode-languageclient';
+import { TextDocument } from 'vscode';
+import { Trace } from 'vscode-jsonrpc';
 
 import * as commons from 'commons-vscode';
 
-/** Called when extension is activated */
 export function activate(context: VSCode.ExtensionContext) {
-    let options : commons.ActivatorOptions = {
-        DEBUG: true,
-        extensionId: 'vscode-boot-java',
-        fatJarFile: 'target/vscode-boot-java-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar',
-        clientOptions: {
-            // HACK!!! documentSelector only takes string|string[] where string is language id, but DocumentFilter object is passed instead
-            // Reasons:
-            // 1. documentSelector is just passed over to functions like #registerHoverProvider(documentSelector, ...) that take documentSelector
-            // parameter in string | DocumentFilter | string[] | DocumentFilter[] format
-            // 2. Combination of non string|string[] documentSelector parameter and synchronize.textDocumentFilter function makes doc synchronization
-            // events pass on to Language Server only for documents for which function passed via textDocumentFilter property return true
 
-            // TODO: Remove <any> cast ones https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-languageserver-node/issues/9 is resolved
+    let CONNECT_TO_LS = false;
+
+    if (CONNECT_TO_LS) {
+        let connectionInfo = {
+            port: 5007
+        };
+        let serverOptions = () => {
+            let socket = net.connect(connectionInfo);
+            let result: StreamInfo = {
+                writer: socket,
+                reader: socket
+            };
+            return Promise.resolve(result);
+        };
+
+        let clientOptions: LanguageClientOptions = {
             documentSelector: ['java'],
             synchronize: {
                 configurationSection: 'vscode-boot-java'
             }
-        }
-    };
-    commons.activate(options, context);
+        };
+
+        let lc = new LanguageClient('vscode-boot-java', serverOptions, clientOptions);
+        lc.trace = Trace.Verbose;
+        let disposable = lc.start();
+        context.subscriptions.push(disposable);
+    }
+    else {
+        let options: commons.ActivatorOptions = {
+            DEBUG: false,
+            extensionId: 'vscode-boot-java',
+            fatJarFile: 'target/vscode-boot-java-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar',
+            clientOptions: {
+                documentSelector: ['java'],
+                synchronize: {
+                    configurationSection: 'vscode-boot-java'
+                }
+            }
+        };
+        commons.activate(options, context);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-java/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/java/StartupServer.java b/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-java/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/java/StartupServer.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7ba13b8c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-java/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/java/StartupServer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+/*******************************************************************************
+ * Copyright (c) 2017 Pivotal, Inc.
+ * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
+ * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
+ * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
+ * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
+ *
+ * Contributors:
+ * Pivotal, Inc. - initial API and implementation
+ *******************************************************************************/
+package org.springframework.ide.vscode.boot.java;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
+import java.net.SocketAddress;
+import java.nio.channels.AsynchronousServerSocketChannel;
+import java.nio.channels.AsynchronousSocketChannel;
+import java.nio.channels.Channels;
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
+import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
+import java.util.concurrent.Future;
+import java.util.function.Function;
+
+import org.eclipse.lsp4j.jsonrpc.Launcher;
+import org.eclipse.lsp4j.jsonrpc.MessageConsumer;
+import org.springframework.ide.vscode.commons.languageserver.STS4LanguageClient;
+import org.springframework.ide.vscode.commons.languageserver.java.JavaProjectFinder;
+import org.springframework.ide.vscode.commons.languageserver.util.SimpleLanguageServer;
+
+/**
+ * starts up the language server and let it listen for connections from the outside
+ * instead of connecting itself to an existing port or channel.
+ * 
+ * This is meant for development only, to reduce turnaround times while working
+ * on the language server from within an IDE, so that you can start the language
+ * server right away in debug mode and let the vscode extension connect to that
+ * instance instead of vice versa.
+ * 
+ * Source of inspiration:
+ * https://github.com/itemis/xtext-languageserver-example/blob/master/org.xtext.example.mydsl.ide/src/org/xtext/example/mydsl/ide/RunServer.java
+ * 
+ * @author Martin Lippert
+ */
+public class StartupServer {
+
+	public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException, IOException {
+
+		JavaProjectFinder javaProjectFinder = BootJavaLanguageServer.DEFAULT_PROJECT_FINDER;
+		SimpleLanguageServer languageServer = new BootJavaLanguageServer(javaProjectFinder);
+
+		Function<MessageConsumer, MessageConsumer> wrapper = consumer -> {
+			MessageConsumer result = consumer;
+			return result;
+		};
+		
+		Launcher<STS4LanguageClient> launcher = createSocketLauncher(languageServer, STS4LanguageClient.class, new InetSocketAddress("localhost", 5007), Executors.newCachedThreadPool(), wrapper);
+
+		languageServer.connect(launcher.getRemoteProxy());
+		Future<?> future = launcher.startListening();
+		while (!future.isDone()) {
+			Thread.sleep(10_000l);
+		}
+	}
+	
+    private static <T> Launcher<T> createSocketLauncher(Object localService, Class<T> remoteInterface, SocketAddress socketAddress, ExecutorService executorService, Function<MessageConsumer, MessageConsumer> wrapper) throws IOException {
+        AsynchronousServerSocketChannel serverSocket = AsynchronousServerSocketChannel.open().bind(socketAddress);
+        AsynchronousSocketChannel socketChannel;
+        try {
+            socketChannel = serverSocket.accept().get();
+            return Launcher.createIoLauncher(localService, remoteInterface, Channels.newInputStream(socketChannel), Channels.newOutputStream(socketChannel), executorService, wrapper);
+        } catch (InterruptedException | ExecutionException e) {
+            e.printStackTrace();
+        }
+        return null;
+    }
+
+}