diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9c6ca0623..b2714e667 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -228,7 +228,8 @@ Every time you pull new changes down, kill docker (if it's running) and re-run:
 
 HostedGPT requires these services to be running:
 
-- Postgres ([installation instructions](https://www.postgresql.org/download/))
+- Postgres (`brew install postgresql@16` or other [install instructions](https://www.postgresql.org/download/))
+  - By default postgres will create a default user and following the instructions below to run the app should just work without any additional config, but if you want to set a specific username and password for your database then set the environment variable `DATABASE_URL=postgres://username:password@localhost/hostedgpt_development` (replacing `username`, `password`, and `hostedgpt_development` (database name) as appropriate
 - rbenv ([installation instructions](https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv))
 - ImageMagick (`brew install imagemagick` should work on Mac )
 
diff --git a/config/database.yml b/config/database.yml
index 6fa635417..f30a6c41c 100644
--- a/config/database.yml
+++ b/config/database.yml
@@ -1,24 +1,18 @@
 default: &default
   adapter: postgresql
   encoding: unicode
-  host: localhost
   pool: <%= ENV.fetch("RAILS_MAX_THREADS") { 5 } %>
   port: <%= ENV['HOSTEDGPT_DATABASE_PORT'] || 5432 %>
 <% if RUBY_PLATFORM =~ /darwin/ %>
   gssencmode: disable
 <% end %>
+  url: <%= ENV['DATABASE_URL'] %>
 
 development:
   <<: *default
-  database: <%= ENV['HOSTEDGPT_DEV_DB'] || "hostedgpt_development" %>
 
 test:
   <<: *default
-  database: <%= ENV['HOSTEDGPT_TEST_DB'] || "hostedgpt_test" %>
 
 production:
   <<: *default
-  database: hostedgpt_production
-  username: hostedgpt
-  password: <%= ENV["HOSTEDGPT_DATABASE_PASSWORD"] %>
-  
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index a6d24ab0b..0f1dd41cb 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ services:
       target: development
     environment:
       # Be sure to add environment variables to config/options.yml
-      - DATABASE_URL=postgres://app:secret@postgres/app_development
+      - DATABASE_URL
       - DEV_HOST=${DEV_HOST:-localhost} # Set if you want to use a different hostname
       - OVERMIND_COLORS=2,3,5
       - VOICE_FEATURE