diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index 2f49cc517..80515f798 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -67,6 +67,11 @@ LIMIT_MESSAGE_USER=false # Whether to limit the amount of messages an IP can sen
 MESSAGE_USER_MAX=40 # The max amount of messages an IP can send per MESSAGE_USER_WINDOW
 MESSAGE_USER_WINDOW=1 # in minutes, determines the window of time for MESSAGE_USER_MAX messages
 
+# If you have permission problems, set here the UID and GID of the user running
+# the docker compose command. The applications in the container will run with these uid/gid.
+UID=1000
+GID=1000
+
 # Change this to proxy any API request. 
 # It's useful if your machine has difficulty calling the original API server. 
 # PROXY=
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index cbef3744f..da5f5569b 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ services:
       target: node                             # ^------v
     # image: ghcr.io/danny-avila/librechat:latest # Uncomment this & comment above to build from docker hub image
     restart: always
+    user: "${UID}:${GID}"
     extra_hosts: # if you are running APIs on docker you need access to, you will need to uncomment this line and next
     - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway"
     env_file:
@@ -50,6 +51,7 @@ services:
     #   - 27018:27017
     image: mongo
     restart: always
+    user: "${UID}:${GID}"
     volumes:
       - ./data-node:/data/db
     command: mongod --noauth
@@ -61,6 +63,7 @@ services:
     #   - 7700:7700 # if exposing these ports, make sure your master key is not the default value
     env_file:
       - .env
+    user: "${UID}:${GID}"
     environment:
       - MEILI_HOST=http://meilisearch:7700
       - MEILI_HTTP_ADDR=meilisearch:7700
diff --git a/docs/install/docker_compose_install.md b/docs/install/docker_compose_install.md
index c6c9bfbdb..520e0bb82 100644
--- a/docs/install/docker_compose_install.md
+++ b/docs/install/docker_compose_install.md
@@ -32,6 +32,11 @@ How to set up the user/auth system and Google login.
 ### Running LibreChat
 Once you have completed all the setup, you can start the LibreChat application by running the command `docker-compose up` in your terminal. After running this command, you can access the LibreChat application at `http://localhost:3080`.
 
+If you build your own containers out of the git checkout with `docker up -d --build` you should pre-create the mount points for the volumes. This avoids occasional trouble with directory permissions when rebuilding:
+```
+mkdir meili_data images .env.production .env.development data-node
+```
+
 **Note:** MongoDB does not support older ARM CPUs like those found in Raspberry Pis. However, you can make it work by setting MongoDB’s version to mongo:4.4.18 in docker-compose.yml, the most recent version compatible with
 
 That's it! If you need more detailed information on configuring your compose file, see my notes below.