diff --git a/SeedDB/Program.cs b/SeedDB/Program.cs
index d13b16c..3283211 100644
--- a/SeedDB/Program.cs
+++ b/SeedDB/Program.cs
@@ -4,12 +4,8 @@ using System.Text;
 using Konscious.Security.Cryptography;
 using Microsoft.Data.SqlClient;
 
-// @todo store this securely using environment variables or a secret manager
-const string connectionString =
-    @"Data Source=AARONPC\INFO5052;Integrated Security=True;
-    Persist Security Info=False;Pooling=False;
-    MultipleActiveResultSets=False;Encrypt=True;
-    TrustServerCertificate=True;Connection Timeout=30;";
+
+string  ConnectionString = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SEEDDB_CONNECTION_STRING")!;
 
 static async Task BuildSchema(SqlConnection connection)
 {
@@ -202,7 +198,7 @@ static string GetScriptPath(string fileName)
 
 try
 {
-    await using SqlConnection connection = new(connectionString);
+    await using SqlConnection connection = new(ConnectionString);
     await connection.OpenAsync();
     Console.WriteLine("Connection to database established successfully.");
 
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index d551229..a456e01 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 services:
   sqlserver:
     image: mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2022-latest
+    platform: linux/amd64
     container_name: sqlserver
     environment:
       ACCEPT_EULA: "Y"
@@ -9,6 +10,37 @@ services:
       - "1433:1433"
     volumes:
       - sqlserverdata:/var/opt/mssql
+    healthcheck:
+      test: [ "CMD", "/opt/mssql-tools18/bin/sqlcmd", "-C", "-S", "localhost", "-U", "sa", "-P", "YourStrong!Passw0rd", "-Q", "SELECT 1" ]
+      interval: 10s
+      timeout: 5s
+      retries: 12
+    networks:
+      - devnet
+
+  dotnet:
+    image: mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:9.0
+    container_name: dotnet-sdk
+    tty: true
+    stdin_open: true
+    volumes:
+      - ./:/home/dev/projects # bind mount your repo for live code edits
+      - nuget-cache:/home/dev/.nuget/packages
+      - ~/.gitconfig:/home/dev/.gitconfig:ro
+    working_dir: /home/dev/projects
+    environment:
+      DOTNET_CLI_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT: "1"
+      HOME: /home/dev
+      USER: dev
+      SEEDDB_CONNECTION_STRING: "Server=sqlserver,1433;User Id=sa;Password=YourStrong!Passw0rd;Encrypt=True;TrustServerCertificate=True;Connection Timeout=30;"
+    user: root
+    networks:
+      - devnet
 
 volumes:
-  sqlserverdata:
\ No newline at end of file
+  sqlserverdata:
+  nuget-cache:
+
+networks:
+  devnet:
+    driver: bridge