diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 6bbd7654..dda2d31f 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ COPY --from=build-backend /go/src/github.com/umputun/remark/remark /srv/
 COPY --from=build-frontend /srv/web/public/ /srv/web
 RUN chown -R umputun:umputun /srv
 
+ADD start.sh /srv/start.sh
+RUN chmod +x /srv/start.sh
+
 USER umputun
 
 WORKDIR /srv
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index daafce77..2da6c66f 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -42,4 +42,4 @@ services:
             #- ./web:/srv/web # uncomment to map web directory directly. It will propagate local changes to container without redeploy
 
         user: ${USER} # if local UID != 1001 (default) set `USER` in your env, i.e. export USER=`id -u $USER`
-        command: /srv/remark server
+        command: /srv/start.sh
diff --git a/start.sh b/start.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d892dbe4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/start.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+echo "prepare environment"
+
+echo "start remark42 server"
+/srv/remark server