diff --git a/apps/runloop/Dockerfile b/apps/runloop/Dockerfile
index aa4fbc8..40151f9 100644
--- a/apps/runloop/Dockerfile
+++ b/apps/runloop/Dockerfile
@@ -55,6 +55,14 @@ COPY --from=builder /app/node_modules/prisma ./node_modules/prisma
 COPY --from=builder /app/node_modules/@prisma ./node_modules/@prisma
 COPY --from=builder /app/package.json ./package.json
 
+# Startup wrapper that runs `prisma db push` before `node server.js`.
+# Without this, the first `docker compose up` against an empty Postgres
+# hits a fatal "relation does not exist" in the engine because no init
+# container ran the migration. K8s deployments still use their real init
+# container; this just covers the docker-compose / single-host path.
+COPY --chown=nextjs:nodejs docker-entrypoint.sh /app/docker-entrypoint.sh
+RUN chmod +x /app/docker-entrypoint.sh
+
 USER nextjs
 
 EXPOSE 3000
@@ -62,4 +70,4 @@ EXPOSE 3000
 ENV PORT 3000
 ENV HOSTNAME "0.0.0.0"
 
-CMD ["node", "server.js"]
+ENTRYPOINT ["/app/docker-entrypoint.sh"]
diff --git a/apps/runloop/docker-entrypoint.sh b/apps/runloop/docker-entrypoint.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f301587
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/runloop/docker-entrypoint.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Web container startup wrapper.
+#
+# Why this exists: a `docker compose up -d` against an empty Postgres
+# would otherwise hit a fatal "relation \"schedulers\" does not exist"
+# the first time the engine starts, because no init container ran the
+# Prisma migration. The k8s deployment uses a real init container for
+# this; for docker-compose / single-host deployments we run the same
+# `prisma db push` here before handing off to Next.js.
+#
+# `prisma db push` is idempotent — repeated runs against an already-
+# in-sync schema cost ~400 ms and make no changes. So leaving this in
+# place permanently is fine.
+
+set -e
+
+# Skip migration only if explicitly opted out. Useful for ops setups
+# that want to control migration timing externally (e.g. blue/green
+# deploys where the new pod starts after a coordinated migration job).
+if [ "${SKIP_DB_MIGRATE}" != "true" ]; then
+  echo "[entrypoint] prisma db push (set SKIP_DB_MIGRATE=true to opt out)..."
+  npx prisma db push --skip-generate --accept-data-loss
+else
+  echo "[entrypoint] SKIP_DB_MIGRATE=true — skipping prisma db push"
+fi
+
+# Hand off to Next.js. exec replaces this shell so signals (SIGTERM
+# from `docker stop`) reach Node directly and graceful-shutdown works.
+exec node server.js