diff --git a/apps/server/src/temporal/worker.test.ts b/apps/server/src/temporal/worker.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f66b3ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/server/src/temporal/worker.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest"
+import { resolveTemporalAddress } from "./worker"
+
+describe("resolveTemporalAddress", () => {
+  it("honors TEMPORAL_ADDRESS so the worker reaches Temporal across containers", () => {
+    expect(resolveTemporalAddress({ TEMPORAL_ADDRESS: "temporal:7233" })).toBe("temporal:7233")
+  })
+
+  it("defaults to localhost:7233 when unset", () => {
+    expect(resolveTemporalAddress({})).toBe("localhost:7233")
+  })
+})
diff --git a/apps/server/src/temporal/worker.ts b/apps/server/src/temporal/worker.ts
index 7ae0ef0..c0c4f45 100644
--- a/apps/server/src/temporal/worker.ts
+++ b/apps/server/src/temporal/worker.ts
@@ -1,14 +1,27 @@
-import { Worker } from "@temporalio/worker"
+import { NativeConnection, Worker } from "@temporalio/worker"
 import * as activities from "./activities"
 
 const TASK_QUEUE = process.env.TEMPORAL_TASK_QUEUE ?? "engineering"
 
+/**
+ * The Temporal server address. The worker MUST honor `TEMPORAL_ADDRESS` so it can reach Temporal
+ * across containers (e.g. `temporal:7233` under Docker Compose). Creating the `Worker` without an
+ * explicit connection silently defaults to `localhost:7233` — which works locally but makes the
+ * worker unable to reach Temporal in Docker, so it crashes on startup with a connection refused.
+ */
+export function resolveTemporalAddress(env: NodeJS.ProcessEnv = process.env): string {
+  return env.TEMPORAL_ADDRESS ?? "localhost:7233"
+}
+
 export async function runTemporalWorker(): Promise<void> {
+  const address = resolveTemporalAddress()
+  const connection = await NativeConnection.connect({ address })
   const worker = await Worker.create({
+    connection,
     workflowsPath: new URL("./workflows.ts", import.meta.url).pathname,
     activities,
     taskQueue: TASK_QUEUE,
   })
-  console.log(`[worker] polling task queue "${TASK_QUEUE}"`)
+  console.log(`[worker] polling task queue "${TASK_QUEUE}" @ ${address}`)
   await worker.run()
 }
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 910aa24..6426368 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ services:
       TEMPORAL_TASK_QUEUE: engineering
       ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: ${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY:-}
     command: ["pnpm", "--filter", "@eng/server", "start"]
+    restart: on-failure
     ports:
       - "3000:3000"
 
@@ -104,6 +105,7 @@ services:
       PERSISTENCE_BACKEND: ${PERSISTENCE_BACKEND:-postgres}
       GITHUB_DOCS_PREFIX: ${GITHUB_DOCS_PREFIX:-docs}
     command: ["pnpm", "--filter", "@eng/server", "worker"]
+    restart: on-failure
 
   web:
     build: