diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index df44202..358e35e 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@ COPY . /var/www/html/
 RUN composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader --no-interaction --prefer-dist \
     && mkdir -p logs \
     && chmod 755 logs \
-    && if [ ! -f .env ]; then cp .env.example .env; fi \
     && chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html
 
 EXPOSE 8080
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index df8f385..fa7a0df 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 --name password-generator password-generator:latest
 
 ### Docker Compose (project-local setup)
 
-The repository ships a compose template rather than a committed local override. Copy it to a host-specific file before running locally.
+The repository ships a compose template rather than a committed local override. Copy it to a host-specific file before running locally. Keep the app runtime configuration on the host (for example `.env` and `config/config.json`) and let Compose mount those values into the container; the image itself must not create or overwrite them.
 
 ```bash
 cp .env.example .env