diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 5ea14ef..27334fa 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -133,6 +133,13 @@ services:
 
     stoic:
         image: ghcr.io/lexx27/stoic:latest
+        # Runs as root — the app container's entrypoint.sh chowns the whole
+        # storage/ tree to www-data on every boot (docker/entrypoint.sh),
+        # and Stoic's own image user isn't www-data or in its group, so it
+        # can't write thumbnails into storage/app/public/stoic/ otherwise
+        # (libvips reports this as "Failed to write VipsImage to file").
+        # Same fix already applied in docker-compose.dev.yml.
+        user: root
         ports:
             - "127.0.0.1:${STOIC_PORT:-2727}:2727"
         environment: