diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index b770f952f..ffad03f22 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -182,13 +182,13 @@ git remote add upstream https://github.com/activist-org/activist.git
 4. Start your docker images with the following:
 
    ```bash
-   docker compose up
+   docker compose --env-file .env.dev up
 
    # Or with new dependencies:
-   # docker compose up --build
+   # docker compose --env-file .env.dev up --build
 
    # And to stop the containers when you're done working:
-   # docker compose down
+   # docker compose --env-file .env.dev down
    ```
 
 5. You can visit <http://localhost:3000/> to see the development build once the container is up and running.
@@ -226,7 +226,7 @@ You can then visit http://localhost:3000/ to see the development frontend build
 Our backend depends on a connection to a postgres DB, therefore we need to setup the database first. Here our best option is to still use docker to create a postgres DB with the following command:
 
 ```bash
-docker compose up db
+docker compose --env-file .env.dev up db
 ```
 
 In order to connect to the DB, we need to change the `DATABASE_HOST` environment variable inside the `.env.dev` file first.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 43223005d..15bb4df9d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -176,13 +176,13 @@ git remote add upstream https://github.com/activist-org/activist.git
 4. Start your docker images with the following:
 
    ```bash
-   docker compose up
+   docker compose --env-file .env.dev up
 
    # Or with new dependencies:
-   # docker compose up --build
+   # docker compose --env-file .env.dev up --build
 
    # And to stop the containers when you're done working:
-   # docker compose down
+   # docker compose --env-file .env.dev down
    ```
 
 5. You can then visit <http://localhost:3000> to see the development frontend build once the container is up and running.