diff --git a/.env.docker b/.env.docker
index 91aac2b04..58f5da060 100644
--- a/.env.docker
+++ b/.env.docker
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 APP_KEY=
 
-DB_DATABASE=database.sqlite
+DB_DATABASE=docker/database.sqlite
diff --git a/.github/docker/entrypoint.sh b/.github/docker/entrypoint.sh
index 20fe6b8c6..d3b891de6 100644
--- a/.github/docker/entrypoint.sh
+++ b/.github/docker/entrypoint.sh
@@ -2,12 +2,40 @@
 
 #mkdir -p /var/log/supervisord/ /var/log/php8/ \
 
-## Make sure the app key is set
-php artisan key:generate
+## check for .env file and generate app keys if missing
+if [ -f /pelican-data/.env ]; then
+  echo "external vars exist."
+  rm -rf /var/www/html/.env
+else
+  echo "external vars don't exist."
+  rm -rf /var/www/html/.env
+  touch /pelican-data/.env
+
+  ## manually generate a key because key generate --force fails
+  if [ -z $APP_KEY ]; then
+     echo -e "Generating key."
+     APP_KEY=$(cat /dev/urandom | tr -dc 'a-zA-Z0-9' | fold -w 32 | head -n 1)
+     echo -e "Generated app key: $APP_KEY"
+     echo -e "APP_KEY=$APP_KEY" > /pelican-data/.env
+  else
+    echo -e "APP_KEY exists in environment, using that."
+    echo -e "APP_KEY=$APP_KEY" > /pelican-data/.env
+  fi
+fi
+
+ln -s /pelican-data/.env /var/www/html/
+
+touch /pelican-data/database.sqlite
+
+if ! grep -q "APP_KEY=" .env || grep -q "APP_KEY=$" .env; then
+  echo "Generating APP_KEY..."
+  php artisan key:generate --force
+else
+  echo "APP_KEY is already set."
+fi
 
 ## make sure the db is set up
 echo -e "Migrating and Seeding Database"
-touch database/database.sqlite
 php artisan migrate --force
 
 ## start cronjobs for the queue
diff --git a/Caddyfile b/Caddyfile
index f3b65899f..1c835bf05 100644
--- a/Caddyfile
+++ b/Caddyfile
@@ -3,8 +3,9 @@
 }
 
 {$APP_URL} {
-	root * /srv/public
+    root * /var/www/html/public
     encode gzip
-    php_fastcgi panel:9000
+
+    php_fastcgi 127.0.0.1:9000
     file_server
 }
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 31e840f07..57d388812 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -20,10 +20,11 @@ WORKDIR /var/www/html
 RUN apk update && apk add --no-cache \
     libpng-dev libjpeg-turbo-dev freetype-dev libzip-dev icu-dev \
     zip unzip curl \
-    ca-certificates supervisor
+    caddy ca-certificates supervisor \
+    && docker-php-ext-install bcmath gd intl zip opcache pcntl posix
 
-# Additional PHP Extensions
-RUN docker-php-ext-install bcmath gd intl zip opcache pcntl posix
+# Copy the Caddyfile to the container
+COPY Caddyfile /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
 
 # Copy the application code to the container
 COPY . .
@@ -43,10 +44,13 @@ RUN chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/storage \
 HEALTHCHECK --interval=5m --timeout=10s --start-period=5s --retries=3 \
   CMD curl -f http://localhost/up || exit 1
 
+EXPOSE 80:2019
+EXPOSE 443
+
 VOLUME /pelican-data
 
 # Start PHP-FPM
-CMD ["sh", "-c", "php-fpm"]
+CMD ["sh", "-c", "php-fpm & caddy run --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile --adapter caddyfile"]
 
 ENTRYPOINT [ "/bin/ash", ".github/docker/entrypoint.sh" ]
 # CMD [ "supervisord", "-n", "-c", "/etc/supervisord.conf" ]
diff --git a/compose.yml b/compose.yml
index 38e48035a..c4737d755 100644
--- a/compose.yml
+++ b/compose.yml
@@ -30,47 +30,22 @@ x-common:
 services:
   panel:
     image: panel
-    restart: unless-stopped
+    restart: always
+    ports:
+      - "80:2019"
+      - "443:443"
     extra_hosts:
       - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway"
     volumes:
       - pelican-data:/pelican-data
-      - .:/srv
+      - pelican-logs:/var/www/html/storage/logs
     environment:
       <<: [*panel-environment, *mail-environment]
-    working_dir: /srv
-
-  caddy:
-    image: caddy:2-alpine
-    restart: unless-stopped
-    volumes:
-      - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile
-      - caddy-data:/data
-      - caddy-config:/config
-      - .:/srv
-    ports:
-      - 80:80
-      - 443:443
-    env_file:
-      - ./.env.docker
-    environment:
-      <<: [ *panel-environment, *mail-environment ]
       XDG_DATA_HOME: /pelican-data
-    logging:
-      driver: "json-file"
-      options:
-        max-size: "1M"
-        max-file: "10"
-    command:
-      - /bin/sh
-      - -c
-      - |
-        caddy run --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile --adapter caddyfile
 
 volumes:
   pelican-data:
-  caddy-data:
-  caddy-config:
+  pelican-logs:
 
 networks:
   default: