---
title: Configuration with Docker | Tiger Data Docs
description: Configure a TimescaleDB instance running in a Docker container
---

If you are running TimescaleDB in a Docker container, there are two different ways to modify your PostgreSQL configuration. You can edit the PostgreSQL configuration file inside the Docker container, or you can set parameters at the command prompt.

## Edit the PostgreSQL configuration file inside Docker

You can start the Docker container, and then use a text editor to edit the PostgreSQL configuration file directly. The configuration file requires one parameter per line. Blank lines are ignored, and you can use a `#` symbol at the beginning of a line to denote a comment.

1. **Start your Docker instance**

   Terminal window

   ```
   docker start timescaledb
   ```

2. **Open a shell**

   Terminal window

   ```
   docker exec -i -t timescaledb /bin/bash
   ```

3. **Open the configuration file in your preferred text editor**

   Terminal window

   ```
   vi /var/lib/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
   ```

4. **Restart the container to reload the configuration**

   Terminal window

   ```
   docker restart timescaledb
   ```

## Setting parameters at the command prompt

If you don’t want to open the configuration file to make changes, you can also set parameters directly from the command prompt inside your Docker container, using the `-c` option. For example:

Terminal window

```
docker run -i -t timescale/timescaledb:latest-pg18 postgres -c max_wal_size=2GB
```