diff --git a/docker-compose-postgres.yml b/docker-compose-postgres.yml
index 515e650b..661ff949 100644
--- a/docker-compose-postgres.yml
+++ b/docker-compose-postgres.yml
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 # Docker Compose configuration for Basic Memory with PostgreSQL
-# Use this for local development and testing with Postgres backend
+# Use this for local development and testing with Postgres backend.
+#
+# The Postgres backend requires the pgvector extension (semantic search).
+# This image bundles pgvector; plain postgres:17 will not work for vector search.
 #
 # Usage:
 #   docker-compose -f docker-compose-postgres.yml up -d
@@ -7,7 +10,7 @@
 
 services:
   postgres:
-    image: postgres:17
+    image: pgvector/pgvector:pg17
     container_name: basic-memory-postgres
     environment:
       # Local development/test credentials - NOT for production
diff --git a/docs/semantic-search.md b/docs/semantic-search.md
index 1706f8fa..bd9f59ab 100644
--- a/docs/semantic-search.md
+++ b/docs/semantic-search.md
@@ -263,6 +263,7 @@ The sqlite-vec extension is loaded per-connection. Vector tables are created laz
 ### Postgres (cloud)
 
 - **Vector storage**: [pgvector](https://github.com/pgvector/pgvector) with HNSW indexing
+- **Local Docker**: use `docker-compose-postgres.yml` (`pgvector/pgvector:pg17`). Plain `postgres:17` lacks the extension; run `CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS vector;` on any external instance before first migration.
 - **Chunk metadata table**: Created via Alembic migration (`search_vector_chunks` with `BIGSERIAL` primary key)
 - **Embedding table**: `search_vector_embeddings` created at runtime (dimension-dependent, same pattern as SQLite)
 - **Index**: HNSW index on the embedding column for fast approximate nearest-neighbour queries
diff --git a/tests/README.md b/tests/README.md
index 4d6d7b28..980a32b0 100644
--- a/tests/README.md
+++ b/tests/README.md
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ pytest
 
 # Run tests against Postgres only (requires docker-compose)
 docker-compose -f docker-compose-postgres.yml up -d
+BASIC_MEMORY_TEST_POSTGRES=1 \
+POSTGRES_TEST_URL=postgresql+asyncpg://basic_memory_user:dev_password@localhost:5433/basic_memory \
 pytest -m postgres
 
 # Run tests against BOTH backends
@@ -54,7 +56,7 @@ database_url = None  # Uses default SQLite path
 
 # Postgres config
 database_backend = DatabaseBackend.POSTGRES
-database_url = "postgresql+asyncpg://basic_memory_user:dev_password@localhost:5433/basic_memory_test"
+database_url = "postgresql+asyncpg://basic_memory_user:dev_password@localhost:5433/basic_memory"
 ```
 
 ## Running Postgres Tests
@@ -66,18 +68,22 @@ docker-compose -f docker-compose-postgres.yml up -d
 ```
 
 This starts:
-- Postgres 17 on port **5433** (not 5432 to avoid conflicts)
-- Test database: `basic_memory_test`
+- Postgres 17 with **pgvector** (`pgvector/pgvector:pg17`) on port **5433** (not 5432 to avoid conflicts)
+- Database: `basic_memory`
 - Credentials: `basic_memory_user` / `dev_password`
 
 ### 2. Run Postgres Tests
 
 ```bash
 # Run only Postgres tests
+BASIC_MEMORY_TEST_POSTGRES=1 \
+POSTGRES_TEST_URL=postgresql+asyncpg://basic_memory_user:dev_password@localhost:5433/basic_memory \
 pytest -m postgres
 
 # Run specific test with Postgres
-pytest tests/test_entity_repository.py::test_create -m postgres
+BASIC_MEMORY_TEST_POSTGRES=1 \
+POSTGRES_TEST_URL=postgresql+asyncpg://basic_memory_user:dev_password@localhost:5433/basic_memory \
+pytest tests/repository/test_entity_repository.py::test_create -m postgres
 
 # Skip Postgres tests (default behavior)
 pytest -m "not postgres"
@@ -121,7 +127,7 @@ jobs:
     # Postgres service container
     services:
       postgres:
-        image: postgres:17
+        image: pgvector/pgvector:pg17
         env:
           POSTGRES_DB: basic_memory_test
           POSTGRES_USER: basic_memory_user
@@ -169,4 +175,4 @@ docker-compose -f docker-compose-postgres.yml exec postgres pg_isready -U basic_
 
 - [ ] Add `--run-all-backends` CLI flag to run both backends in sequence
 - [ ] Implement test fixtures for backend-specific features (e.g., Postgres full-text search vs SQLite FTS5)
-- [ ] Add performance comparison benchmarks between backends
\ No newline at end of file
+- [ ] Add performance comparison benchmarks between backends