diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index 5b025b7..1624c6e 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+MONGO_HOST=
+MONGO_PORT=
 MONGO_USERNAME=
 MONGO_PASSWORD=
 OPENROUTER_API_KEY=
diff --git a/simplylab/main.py b/simplylab/main.py
index f4adb31..9a4478b 100644
--- a/simplylab/main.py
+++ b/simplylab/main.py
@@ -34,9 +34,11 @@ app = FastAPI()
 
 @app.on_event("startup")
 def startup_db_client():
+    mongo_host = os.getenv("MONGO_HOST", "localhost")
+    mongo_port = os.getenv("MONGO_PORT", "27017")
     mongo_username = os.getenv("MONGO_USERNAME")
     mongo_password = os.getenv("MONGO_PASSWORD")
-    mongo_uri = f"mongodb://{mongo_username}:{mongo_password}@mongodb:27017/"
+    mongo_uri = f"mongodb://{mongo_username}:{mongo_password}@{mongo_host}:{mongo_port}/"
     app.mongodb_client = motor.motor_asyncio.AsyncIOMotorClient(mongo_uri)
     app.db = Database(client=app.mongodb_client)
     logger.info("Connected to the MongoDB database!")