diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
index a21fd240..1434837b 100644
--- a/.dockerignore
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
 !stubs
 !app
 !buildtools
-!ormconfig.js
 !static
 !bower_components
 !sandbox
diff --git a/app/server/companion.ts b/app/server/companion.ts
index 787affed..df2ddd8c 100644
--- a/app/server/companion.ts
+++ b/app/server/companion.ts
@@ -2,12 +2,13 @@ import { version } from 'app/common/version';
 import { synchronizeProducts } from 'app/gen-server/entity/Product';
 import { HomeDBManager } from 'app/gen-server/lib/HomeDBManager';
 import { applyPatch } from 'app/gen-server/lib/TypeORMPatches';
-import { getMigrations, getOrCreateConnection, undoLastMigration, updateDb } from 'app/server/lib/dbUtils';
+import { getMigrations, getOrCreateConnection, getTypeORMSettings,
+         undoLastMigration, updateDb } from 'app/server/lib/dbUtils';
 import { getDatabaseUrl } from 'app/server/lib/serverUtils';
 import { Gristifier } from 'app/server/utils/gristify';
 import { pruneActionHistory } from 'app/server/utils/pruneActionHistory';
 import * as commander from 'commander';
-import { Connection, getConnectionOptions } from 'typeorm';
+import { Connection } from 'typeorm';
 
 /**
  * Main entrypoint for a cli toolbox for configuring aspects of Grist
@@ -140,7 +141,7 @@ export function addDbCommand(program: commander.Command,
   sub('url')
     .description('construct a url for the database (for psql, catsql etc)')
     .action(withConnection(async () => {
-      console.log(getDatabaseUrl(await getConnectionOptions(), true));
+      console.log(getDatabaseUrl(getTypeORMSettings(), true));
       return 0;
     }));
 }
@@ -175,7 +176,7 @@ export async function dbCheck(connection: Connection) {
   const changingProducts = await synchronizeProducts(connection, false);
   // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-shadow
   const log = process.env.TYPEORM_LOGGING === 'true' ? console.log : (...args: any[]) => null;
-  const options = await getConnectionOptions();
+  const options = getTypeORMSettings();
   log("database url:", getDatabaseUrl(options, false));
   log("migration files:", options.migrations);
   log("migrations applied to db:", migrations.migrationsInDb);
diff --git a/app/server/lib/dbUtils.ts b/app/server/lib/dbUtils.ts
index be299b3b..ec095dc3 100644
--- a/app/server/lib/dbUtils.ts
+++ b/app/server/lib/dbUtils.ts
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ export async function undoLastMigration(connection: Connection) {
 // Replace the old janky ormconfig.js file, which was always a source of
 // pain to use since it wasn't properly integrated into the typescript
 // project.
-function getTypeORMSettings(): DataSourceOptions {
+export function getTypeORMSettings(): DataSourceOptions {
   // If we have a redis server available, tell typeorm.  Then any queries built with
   // .cache() called on them will be cached via redis.
   // We use a separate environment variable for the moment so that we don't have to