diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index d6c147eb..54a438e7 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ FIRST_SUPERUSER=admin@example.com
 FIRST_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD=changethis
 USERS_OPEN_REGISTRATION=False
 MAX_UPLOAD_SIZE=50_000_000
+MAX_WORKERS=4
 
 # llm provider keys. Add only to models that you want to use
 OPENAI_API_KEY=
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 61225b30..5309052b 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ services:
     env_file:
       - .env
     environment:
+      - MAX_WORKERS=${MAX_WORKERS}
       - DOMAIN=${DOMAIN}
       - ENVIRONMENT=${ENVIRONMENT}
       - BACKEND_CORS_ORIGINS=${BACKEND_CORS_ORIGINS}
diff --git a/local-deployment.md b/local-deployment.md
index d6a82b62..f360b480 100644
--- a/local-deployment.md
+++ b/local-deployment.md
@@ -83,5 +83,6 @@ Once the containers are running, you can access various services through the fol
 - **Adminer**: [http://adminer.localhost/](http://adminer.localhost/)
 
 ## Troubleshooting
+- **Out of Memory**: If you are getting the `Worker (pid:14) was sent SIGKILL! Perhaps out of memory?` error, this is due to the number of processes started for the backend container consuming more memory than what is available. You can fix this by decreasing `MAX_WORKERS` in your `.env` file.
 - **Unable to login to Traefik Dashboard**: Ensure that username and password is correct. If you are using zsh, `USERNAME` environment variable corresponds to the real user ID of the shell process, so you shold use your user ID as the username.
 - **Cannot login to Adminer**: Set 'System' to `PostgreSQL` and set the 'server' field should be `db`. The other fields should follow the values in your `.env` file.
\ No newline at end of file