diff --git a/docker/standalone/Dockerfile b/docker/standalone/Dockerfile
index 7353b8ac..f0fb3888 100644
--- a/docker/standalone/Dockerfile
+++ b/docker/standalone/Dockerfile
@@ -170,6 +170,11 @@ RUN chown -R hindsight:hindsight /app
 
 USER hindsight
 
+# Create pg0 data directory as hindsight user so that Docker seeds new named
+# volumes with correct ownership (UID 1000) on first use, avoiding the
+# "Permission denied" error when mounting a fresh root-owned volume.
+RUN mkdir -p /home/hindsight/.pg0
+
 ENV PATH="/app/api/.venv/bin:${PATH}"
 
 # Pre-download tiktoken encoding (ALWAYS - required for token counting even in air-gapped envs)
@@ -321,6 +326,11 @@ RUN chown -R hindsight:hindsight /app
 
 USER hindsight
 
+# Create pg0 data directory as hindsight user so that Docker seeds new named
+# volumes with correct ownership (UID 1000) on first use, avoiding the
+# "Permission denied" error when mounting a fresh root-owned volume.
+RUN mkdir -p /home/hindsight/.pg0
+
 ENV PATH="/app/api/.venv/bin:${PATH}"
 
 # Pre-download tiktoken encoding (ALWAYS - required for token counting even in air-gapped envs)