diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 923e7f6..ed0ed26 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ services:
     environment:
       DATABASE_URL: postgresql://memory:${MEMORY_DB_PASSWORD:-memory}@memory-db:5432/memories
       LITELLM_BASE_URL: ${LITELLM_BASE_URL}
-      LITELLM_API_KEY: ${LITELLM_API_KEY:-not-needed}
+      LITELLM_API_KEY: ${LITELLM_MASTER_KEY}
       EMBED_MODEL: ${EMBED_MODEL:-text-embedding-3-small}
     depends_on:
       memory-db: