diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index dca7f4c..45660a5 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -4,3 +4,4 @@ __pycache__
 scrape_configs.yml
 !vars/scrape_configs.yml
 .venv
+.env
diff --git a/docker/README.md b/docker/README.md
index c99b8e7..68cd855 100644
--- a/docker/README.md
+++ b/docker/README.md
@@ -49,6 +49,15 @@ Once you can run docker commands and have `docker compose` you can proceed to th
 
 Now that you have `docker` you can proceed to configure the stack. 
 
+### Ensuring proper user and group
+
+To properly configure the user and group which will be used for all docker workloads
+run the following setup script:
+```bash
+# NOTE: you have to be within the same directory as this README!
+./setup.sh
+```
+
 ### Scraping targets
 
 First thing that you have to configure is your scraping targets. To do that, find your 
diff --git a/docker/docker-compose.tools.yaml b/docker/docker-compose.tools.yaml
index 1a48db6..bfc7ee3 100644
--- a/docker/docker-compose.tools.yaml
+++ b/docker/docker-compose.tools.yaml
@@ -6,4 +6,5 @@ services:
     volumes:
       - ./config/prometheus:/config/prometheus
       - ./tools/prom-config-builder/:/tools/prom-config-builder
+    user: "${UID}:${GID}"
 
diff --git a/docker/docker-compose.yaml b/docker/docker-compose.yaml
index 910997c..0de16ae 100644
--- a/docker/docker-compose.yaml
+++ b/docker/docker-compose.yaml
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ services:
       - /msd/definitions.json
     volumes:
       - ./volumes/msd:/msd
+    user: "${UID}:${GID}"
 
   prometheus:
     image: quay.io/prometheus/prometheus:v2.51.1
diff --git a/docker/setup.sh b/docker/setup.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..72c199f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/setup.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+# /usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+# Resolve the directory of the script (so it works regardless of where it's run from)
+SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
+ENV_FILE="${SCRIPT_DIR}/.env"
+
+# If .env already exists, do nothing
+if [[ -f "$ENV_FILE" ]]; then
+  echo ".env already exists at $ENV_FILE"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+# Get current user's UID and GID
+UID_VAL=$(id -u)
+GID_VAL=$(id -g)
+
+# Write them to .env
+cat > "$ENV_FILE" <<EOF
+UID=${UID_VAL}
+GID=${GID_VAL}
+EOF
+
+echo "Created $ENV_FILE with UID=${UID_VAL} and GID=${GID_VAL}"
+