diff --git a/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/.env.template b/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/.env.template
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f44571b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/.env.template
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+POSTGRES_USER=postgres
+POSTGRES_DB=wien_talks
+POSTGRES_PASSWORD=sergtsop
diff --git a/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/.gitignore b/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/.gitignore
index ee19b5d..c4bbf42 100644
--- a/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/.gitignore
+++ b/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/.gitignore
@@ -14,4 +14,5 @@ config/passwords.yaml
 # Firebase service account key for Firebase auth
 config/firebase_service_account_key.json
 
-.env
\ No newline at end of file
+.env
+*.env
diff --git a/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/Makefile b/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8f54d82
--- /dev/null
+++ b/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+include ../defines.mk
+
+COMPOSE_FILE_LOCAL = docker-compose.local.yaml
+COMPOSE_FILE_DEPLOY = docker-compose.deploy.yaml
+
+# Basically the current directory's name, so wien_talks_server
+COMPOSE_PROJECT := $(shell basename $(shell pwd))
+
+.env: .env.template
+	cp -a .env.template .env
+
+.PHONY := local local-stop local-down local-clean
+local: .env
+	docker compose -f $(COMPOSE_FILE_LOCAL) up -d
+
+local-stop:
+	docker compose -f $(COMPOSE_FILE_LOCAL) stop
+
+local-down:
+	docker compose -f $(COMPOSE_FILE_LOCAL) down
+
+local-clean: local-down
+	for VOLUME in $(shell docker compose -f $(COMPOSE_FILE_LOCAL) volumes -q); \
+		do docker volume rm "$$VOLUME"; done
+
diff --git a/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/README.md b/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/README.md
index f730d7e..daddc21 100644
--- a/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/README.md
+++ b/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/README.md
@@ -13,3 +13,17 @@ Then you can start the Serverpod server.
 When you are finished, you can shut down Serverpod with `Ctrl-C`, then stop Postgres and Redis.
 
     docker compose stop
+
+## Environments & Passwords
+
+Note that the password used in your environment files (`.env` for local
+development and `env.d/postgres.env.template` for deployment) must correspond to
+the password in `config/passwords.yaml`.
+
+The `config/passwords.yaml` file must be created manually, for example:
+
+```yaml
+development:
+  database: your-password-here
+```
+
diff --git a/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/docker-compose.local.yaml b/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/docker-compose.local.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..730d41c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/docker-compose.local.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+services:
+  postgres:
+    image: postgres:16-trixie
+    container_name: postgres-dev
+    environment:
+      - POSTGRES_USER=${POSTGRES_USER}
+      - POSTGRES_DB=${POSTGRES_DB}
+      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
+    volumes:
+      - db-local:/var/lib/postgresql/data
+    restart: unless-stopped
+    ports:
+      - "8090:5432"
+
+volumes:
+  db-local:
diff --git a/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/docker-compose.yaml b/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/docker-compose.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index 09621fa..0000000
--- a/wien_talks/wien_talks_server/docker-compose.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,16 +0,0 @@
-services:
-  # Development services
-  postgres:
-    image: pgvector/pgvector:pg16
-    ports:
-      - "8090:5432"
-    environment:
-      POSTGRES_USER:
-      POSTGRES_DB:
-      POSTGRES_PASSWORD:
-    volumes:
-      - wien_talks_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
-
-volumes:
-  wien_talks_data:
-  wien_talks_test_data: