diff --git a/Containerfile.add_llama_to_lightspeed b/Containerfile.add_llama_to_lightspeed
index ec0fd87..2ad68f0 100644
--- a/Containerfile.add_llama_to_lightspeed
+++ b/Containerfile.add_llama_to_lightspeed
@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@ RUN cd /app-root/llama-stack && python3.12 -m pip install --editable .
 
 RUN cd /app-root/ && python3.12 -m pip install .
 
+COPY migrate.py /app/migrate.py
+ENTRYPOINT ["/bin/sh", "-c", "python3.12 /app/migrate.py && python3.12 src/lightspeed_stack.py"]
+
 USER 1001
 
 EXPOSE 8080
diff --git a/Containerfile.assisted-chat b/Containerfile.assisted-chat
index f99cb81..552c219 100644
--- a/Containerfile.assisted-chat
+++ b/Containerfile.assisted-chat
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 # This is the digest of quay.io/lightspeed-core/lightspeed-stack:0.3.0
 FROM quay.io/lightspeed-core/lightspeed-stack@sha256:d1805df92f4de55d662e6274328830e2c1300f308c258abfcfad825a241cb50d
 
+COPY migrate.py /app/migrate.py
+ENTRYPOINT ["/bin/sh", "-c", "python3.12 /app/migrate.py && python3.12 src/lightspeed_stack.py"]
+
 USER 1001
 
 EXPOSE 8080
diff --git a/assisted-chat-pod.yaml b/assisted-chat-pod.yaml
index bcc4645..910bd8b 100644
--- a/assisted-chat-pod.yaml
+++ b/assisted-chat-pod.yaml
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ spec:
           value: assisted-chat
         - name: ASSISTED_CHAT_POSTGRES_NAME
           value: assisted-chat
+        - name: LIGHTSPEED_STACK_POSTGRES_SSL_MODE
+          value: ${LIGHTSPEED_STACK_POSTGRES_SSL_MODE}
       ports:
         - containerPort: 8090
           hostPort: 8090
@@ -109,9 +111,10 @@ spec:
           value: assisted-chat
       ports:
         - containerPort: 5432
+          hostPort: 5432
       volumeMounts:
         - name: pgdata
-          mountPath: /var/lib/pgsql/data
+          mountPath: /var/lib/pgsql/data:Z
   volumes:
     - name: config
       hostPath:
@@ -119,3 +122,7 @@ spec:
         type: Directory
     - name: pgdata
       emptyDir: {}
+      # Uncomment this and comment out emptyDir to persist data between pod restarts
+      # hostPath:
+      #   path: /home/$USER/.local/share/assisted-chat/pgdata
+      #   type: DirectoryOrCreate
diff --git a/migrate.py b/migrate.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..353a7d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/migrate.py
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+"""
+This script connects to a PostgreSQL database and performs migrations.
+
+This is because lightspeed-stack does not currently perform migrations on its own,
+which means the database either has to be created from scratch or migrated like we do here.
+
+Any migrations added should be idempotent, meaning they can be ran multiple times without
+causing errors or unintended effects. This is because we run this script every time the
+service starts to ensure the database is up to date.
+
+Currently the migrations are as follows:
+
+1. Add a new column `topic_summary` as it was added in lightspeed-stack v0.3.0
+
+WARNING: This script assumes that the database is postgres and that the schema used is
+called `lightspeed-stack`. If either of these assumptions are incorrect, the script may fail
+or cause unintended effects. lightspeed-stack could also use sqlite or a different schema
+if configured to do so, but we don't handle those cases here because we don't use them.
+"""
+
+import os
+import time
+import sys
+
+import psycopg2
+
+for _ in range(30):
+    try:
+        conn = psycopg2.connect(
+            host=os.getenv("ASSISTED_CHAT_POSTGRES_HOST"),
+            port=os.getenv("ASSISTED_CHAT_POSTGRES_PORT"),
+            dbname=os.getenv("ASSISTED_CHAT_POSTGRES_NAME"),
+            user=os.getenv("ASSISTED_CHAT_POSTGRES_USER"),
+            password=os.getenv("ASSISTED_CHAT_POSTGRES_PASSWORD"),
+            sslmode=os.getenv("LIGHTSPEED_STACK_POSTGRES_SSL_MODE"),
+        )
+        break
+    except psycopg2.OperationalError as e:
+        print("Waiting for Postgres...", e, file=sys.stderr)
+        time.sleep(2)
+else:
+    sys.exit("Postgres not available after 60s")
+
+
+# Ensure the schema even exists, if it doesn't, it's a fresh database and
+# we don't need to run migrations
+with conn.cursor() as cur:
+    cur.execute(
+        "SELECT schema_name FROM information_schema.schemata WHERE schema_name = 'lightspeed-stack'"
+    )
+    if not cur.fetchone():
+        print(
+            "Schema 'lightspeed-stack' absent, database probably fresh, skipping migrations"
+        )
+        conn.close()
+        sys.exit(0)
+
+
+cur = conn.cursor()
+cur.execute(
+    'ALTER TABLE "lightspeed-stack"."user_conversation" ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS topic_summary text'
+)
+conn.commit()
+cur.close()
+conn.close()
+print("Migration completed")
diff --git a/scripts/run.sh b/scripts/run.sh
index 4c1424d..05db9a4 100755
--- a/scripts/run.sh
+++ b/scripts/run.sh
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ else
 fi
 
 set -a && source "$PROJECT_ROOT/.env" && set +a
+set -a && source "$PROJECT_ROOT/template-params.dev.env" && set +a
 export LIGHTSPEED_STACK_IMAGE_OVERRIDE="${LIGHTSPEED_STACK_IMAGE_OVERRIDE:-localhost/local-ai-chat-lightspeed-stack-plus-llama-stack}"
 
 # Validate and export OCM tokens for use in pod configuration
@@ -31,6 +32,17 @@ if ! export_ocm_token; then
     echo "Failed to get OCM tokens. The UI container will not be able to authenticate with OCM."
     exit 1
 fi
-podman play kube --build=false <(envsubst < "$PROJECT_ROOT"/assisted-chat-pod.yaml)
+
+# This is conditional because it's super slow for some reason. If the user
+# doesn't have a hostPath volume for pgdata, we don't need it anyway
+if <"$PROJECT_ROOT/assisted-chat-pod.yaml" yq | jq '.spec.volumes[] | select(.name == "pgdata").hostPath != null' --exit-status; then
+    # Map the PostgreSQL user (UID 26) inside the container to the current host user
+    # This allows the PostgreSQL container to write to host-mounted volumes without permission issues
+    POSTGRES_USER_ID=26
+    POSTGRES_GROUP_ID=26
+    podman play kube --build=false --userns=keep-id:uid=$POSTGRES_USER_ID,gid=$POSTGRES_GROUP_ID <(envsubst <"$PROJECT_ROOT"/assisted-chat-pod.yaml)
+else
+    podman play kube --build=false <(envsubst <"$PROJECT_ROOT"/assisted-chat-pod.yaml)
+fi
 
 "$SCRIPT_DIR/logs.sh"