diff --git a/docker-compose.yaml b/docker-compose.yaml
index 0f5340bf..ca0f818b 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yaml
+++ b/docker-compose.yaml
@@ -19,11 +19,18 @@ services:
       # Possible values: amd64 or arm64
       # - ARCH=amd64
       - REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379/0
+      # Allow custom PostgreSQL connection string
+      - POSTGRES_USER=postgres
+      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres
+      - POSTGRES_DB=postgres
+      - POSTGRES_URL=postgresql://${POSTGRES_USER}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@write-postgres:5432/${POSTGRES_DB}
+  
   write-postgres:
     image: postgres:latest
     environment:
       - POSTGRES_USER=postgres
       - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres
+      - POSTGRES_DB=postgres
     healthcheck:
       test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U postgres"]
       interval: 5s
@@ -34,11 +41,13 @@ services:
     environment:
       - POSTGRES_USER=postgres
       - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres
+      - POSTGRES_DB=postgres  # Ensure consistency
     healthcheck:
       test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U postgres"]
       interval: 5s
       timeout: 5s
       retries: 5
+
   redis:
     image: redis:latest
     healthcheck:
@@ -46,6 +55,7 @@ services:
       interval: 5s
       timeout: 5s
       retries: 5
+
   gatewayd:
     image: gatewaydio/gatewayd:latest
     command:
@@ -65,6 +75,8 @@ services:
       # https://docs.gatewayd.io/using-gatewayd/configuration#environment-variables
       - GATEWAYD_CLIENTS_DEFAULT_WRITES_ADDRESS=write-postgres:5432
       - GATEWAYD_CLIENTS_DEFAULT_READS_ADDRESS=read-postgres:5432
+      # Use the connection string set in install_plugins
+      - POSTGRES_URL=${POSTGRES_URL}
       # - GATEWAYD_LOGGERS_DEFAULT_LEVEL=debug
     ports:
       # GatewayD server for PostgreSQL clients to connect to
diff --git a/gatewayd_plugins.yaml b/gatewayd_plugins.yaml
index dce0b285..73a418bd 100644
--- a/gatewayd_plugins.yaml
+++ b/gatewayd_plugins.yaml
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ actionRedis:
   enabled: false
 
   # if enabled, the url and channel are used to connect to the Redis server.
-  address: localhost:6379
+  address: ${REDIS_URL}  # Use environment variable for Redis URL
   channel: gatewayd-actions
 
 # The policy is a list of policies to apply to the signals received from the plugins.
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ plugins:
     env:
       - MAGIC_COOKIE_KEY=GATEWAYD_PLUGIN
       - MAGIC_COOKIE_VALUE=5712b87aa5d7e9f9e9ab643e6603181c5b796015cb1c09d6f5ada882bf2a1872
-      - REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379/0
+      - REDIS_URL=${REDIS_URL}  # Use environment variable for Redis URL
       - EXPIRY=1h
       # - DEFAULT_DB_NAME=postgres
       - METRICS_ENABLED=True