diff --git a/apps/rowboat/.dockerignore b/apps/rowboat/.dockerignore
index 72e9aa42..21b9cda1 100644
--- a/apps/rowboat/.dockerignore
+++ b/apps/rowboat/.dockerignore
@@ -4,4 +4,5 @@ node_modules
 npm-debug.log
 README.md
 .next
-.git
\ No newline at end of file
+.git
+.env*
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/apps/rowboat/app/actions.ts b/apps/rowboat/app/actions.ts
index fa47527e..594944f2 100644
--- a/apps/rowboat/app/actions.ts
+++ b/apps/rowboat/app/actions.ts
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ import { Claims, getSession } from "@auth0/nextjs-auth0";
 import { revalidatePath } from "next/cache";
 import { baseWorkflow } from "./lib/utils";
 
-const crawler = new FirecrawlApp({ apiKey: process.env.FIRECRAWL_API_KEY });
+const crawler = new FirecrawlApp({ apiKey: process.env.FIRECRAWL_API_KEY || '' });
 
 export async function authCheck(): Promise<Claims> {
     const { user } = await getSession() || {};
diff --git a/apps/rowboat/app/lib/mongodb.ts b/apps/rowboat/app/lib/mongodb.ts
index 292c5f4a..d138b64e 100644
--- a/apps/rowboat/app/lib/mongodb.ts
+++ b/apps/rowboat/app/lib/mongodb.ts
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import { MongoClient } from "mongodb";
 import { PlaygroundChat, DataSource, EmbeddingDoc, Project, Webpage, ChatClientId, Workflow, Scenario, ProjectMember } from "./types";
 import { z } from 'zod';
 
-const client = new MongoClient(process.env["MONGODB_CONNECTION_STRING"] || "");
+const client = new MongoClient(process.env["MONGODB_CONNECTION_STRING"] || "mongodb://localhost:27017");
 
 export const db = client.db("rowboat");
 export const dataSourcesCollection = db.collection<z.infer<typeof DataSource>>("sources");