diff --git a/self-hosted/docker-build/run_backend.sh b/self-hosted/docker-build/run_backend.sh
index 8d85a81d2..0fcc9637b 100644
--- a/self-hosted/docker-build/run_backend.sh
+++ b/self-hosted/docker-build/run_backend.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 #! /bin/bash
 
+# Set data directories
 export DATA_DIR=${DATA_DIR:-/convex/data}
 export TMPDIR=${TMPDIR:-"$DATA_DIR/tmp"}
 export STORAGE_DIR=${STORAGE_DIR:-"$DATA_DIR/storage"}
@@ -8,17 +9,29 @@ export SQLITE_DB=${SQLITE_DB:-"$DATA_DIR/db.sqlite3"}
 set -e
 mkdir -p "$TMPDIR" "$STORAGE_DIR"
 
+# Load credentials (if any)
 source ./read_credentials.sh
 
 # Determine database configuration
 if [ -n "$DATABASE_URL" ]; then
-    # If DATABASE_URL is set, use Postgres
+    # If DATABASE_URL is set, use PostgreSQL
     DB_SPEC="$DATABASE_URL"
-    DB_FLAGS=(--db postgres-v5)
+    DB_FLAGS=(--db postgres-v5 "$DB_SPEC")
+
+    # Add --do-not-require-ssl flag if POSTGRES_SSL is false
+    if [ "$POSTGRES_SSL" == "false" ]; then
+        DB_FLAGS+=("--do-not-require-ssl")
+    fi
+
+    # For PostgreSQL, we just pass the flags (without the DB_SPEC at the end)
+    DB_ARGS="${DB_FLAGS[@]}"
 else
-    # Otherwise fallback to SQLite
+    # Otherwise, fallback to SQLite
     DB_SPEC="$SQLITE_DB"
     DB_FLAGS=()
+
+    # For SQLite, we pass both the flags and the DB_SPEC (connection string)
+    DB_ARGS="${DB_FLAGS[@]} $DB_SPEC"
 fi
 
 # --port and --site-proxy-port are internal to the container, so we pick them to
@@ -37,5 +50,4 @@ exec ./convex-local-backend "$@" \
     --beacon-tag "self-hosted-docker" \
     ${DISABLE_BEACON:+--disable-beacon} \
     ${REDACT_LOGS_TO_CLIENT:+--redact-logs-to-client} \
-    "${DB_FLAGS[@]}" \
-    "$DB_SPEC"
+    $DB_ARGS