diff --git a/Dockerfile.dev b/Dockerfile.dev
index fd60996..36ec528 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.dev
+++ b/Dockerfile.dev
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 FROM node:20-bookworm-slim AS base
 
 # Prisma needs OpenSSL available during install/generate/runtime.
-RUN apt-get update -y && apt-get install -y openssl && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+RUN apt-get update -y && apt-get install -y openssl postgresql-client && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 # Install pnpm
 RUN npm install -g pnpm@9.14.2
diff --git a/tooling/docker/app-dev-start.sh b/tooling/docker/app-dev-start.sh
index 40d134b..12419f3 100644
--- a/tooling/docker/app-dev-start.sh
+++ b/tooling/docker/app-dev-start.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 set -eu
 
+# Wait for postgres to be ready before running migrations
+echo "Waiting for postgres..."
+until pg_isready -h "${POSTGRES_HOST:-postgres}" -p "${POSTGRES_PORT:-5432}" -q; do
+  sleep 1
+done
+echo "Postgres is ready."
+
 # Regenerate Prisma client (needed after bind-mount overlays the image layer)
 pnpm --filter @capakraken/db db:generate