diff --git a/dev/deploy-to-container/cli.js b/dev/deploy-to-container/cli.js
index 15347a2a7..406bfb383 100644
--- a/dev/deploy-to-container/cli.js
+++ b/dev/deploy-to-container/cli.js
@@ -247,7 +247,8 @@ async function main () {
     Env: [
       `LETSENCRYPT_HOST=${hostname}`,
       `VIRTUAL_HOST=${hostname}`,
-      `VIRTUAL_PORT=8000`
+      `VIRTUAL_PORT=8000`,
+      `PGHOST=dt-db-${branch}`
     ],
     Labels: {
       appversion: `${argv.appversion}` ?? '0.0.0',
diff --git a/dev/deploy-to-container/start.sh b/dev/deploy-to-container/start.sh
index 9c974dea8..992918136 100644
--- a/dev/deploy-to-container/start.sh
+++ b/dev/deploy-to-container/start.sh
@@ -22,8 +22,10 @@ echo "Creating data directories..."
 chmod +x ./app-create-dirs.sh
 ./app-create-dirs.sh
 
-echo "Altering PG search path..."
-psql -U django -h db -d ietf -v ON_ERROR_STOP=1 -c '\x' -c 'ALTER USER django set search_path=ietf_utf8,django,public;'
+if [ -n "$PGHOST" ]; then
+    echo "Altering PG search path..."
+    psql -U django -h $PGHOST -d ietf -v ON_ERROR_STOP=1 -c '\x' -c 'ALTER USER django set search_path=ietf_utf8,django,public;'
+fi
 
 echo "Running Datatracker checks..."
 ./ietf/manage.py check