diff --git a/e2e/README.md b/e2e/README.md
index 830a9662d0a..d3724280109 100644
--- a/e2e/README.md
+++ b/e2e/README.md
@@ -1,14 +1,35 @@
 Please add the corresponding e2e (aka end-to-end) test cases if you add or update APIs.
 
 ## How to work
-* Start and watch the [docker-compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/) via [the script](script/start.sh)
-* Run the e2e testing via [api-testing](https://github.com/LinuxSuRen/api-testing)
-  * It will run the test cases from top to bottom
-  * You can add the necessary asserts to it
+* Start and watch the [Docker Compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/) environment
+  * The Compose file is `e2e/docker-compose.yml`
+  * The `testing` container uses [api-testing](https://github.com/LinuxSuRen/api-testing)
+  * The main test definition file is `e2e/testsuite.yaml`
+  * Before starting the suite locally, build the `apache/hertzbeat:test` image from the repository root:
+
+    ```bash
+    mvn clean -B package -Prelease -Dmaven.test.skip=true --file pom.xml
+    docker build -t apache/hertzbeat:test -f script/docker/server/Dockerfile ./dist
+    ```
+
+* Run the E2E tests via [api-testing](https://github.com/LinuxSuRen/api-testing)
+  * The test cases run from top to bottom
+  * You can add the necessary assertions there
+  * Test data files are under `e2e/data/`
+  * The test report is generated at `e2e/report/report.md`
+  * HertzBeat logs are written to `e2e/logs/`
 
 ## Run locally
-Please follow these steps if you want to run the e2e testing locally.
+Please follow these steps if you want to run the E2E tests locally.
+
+> Please make sure that Docker Compose v2 is installed
+
+* Build the local `apache/hertzbeat:test` image from the repository root
+* Change the directory to `e2e`, then run:
 
-> Please make sure you have installed docker-compose v2
+  ```bash
+  docker compose up --exit-code-from testing --remove-orphans
+  ```
 
-* Change the directory to `e2e`, then execute `./script/start.sh`
+* If your environment uses the standalone Compose binary, use `docker-compose` instead of `docker compose`
+* After the run, check `e2e/report/report.md` and `e2e/logs/` for the test result and runtime logs