diff --git a/changelog/4234.added.md b/changelog/4234.added.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ab178c4d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/4234.added.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+- The development runner now exports a module-level `app` FastAPI instance (`from pipecat.runner.run import app`) so you can register custom routes before calling `main()`.