diff --git a/.docker/docker-compose.qgis.yml b/.docker/docker-compose.yml
similarity index 52%
rename from .docker/docker-compose.qgis.yml
rename to .docker/docker-compose.yml
index 0424bb33..3611107e 100644
--- a/.docker/docker-compose.qgis.yml
+++ b/.docker/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 version: '3'
+
 services:
   signalo:
     build:
@@ -10,7 +11,7 @@ services:
       - ${SOURCE_DIR}:/usr/src
     ports:
       # making the postgres database accessible for debugging
-      - 5432:5432
+      - ${SIGNALO_PG_PORT:-5432}:${SIGNALO_PG_PORT:-5432}
 
   qgis:
     image: opengisch/qgis
@@ -20,3 +21,21 @@ services:
       - ./.pg_service.conf:/etc/postgresql-common/pg_service.conf:ro
     links:
       - signalo
+    profiles:
+      - qgis
+
+  schemaspy:
+    image: schemaspy/schemaspy
+    volumes:
+      - ../data_model/schemaspy:/output
+      - ../data_model/schemaspy.properties:/schemaspy.properties
+    depends_on:
+      - signalo
+    network_mode: "service:signalo"
+    command: [
+      "-configFile",
+      "/schemaspy.properties"
+    ]
+    user: "${UID}:${GID}"
+    profiles:
+      - schemaspy
diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index 0701b475..dd6d0f39 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -2,3 +2,7 @@
 # ----------------------
 # Define POSTGRES PORT for Docker when calling datamodel/scripts/run-docker.sh
 SIGNALO_PG_PORT=5432
+
+# fix access rights for schemaspy
+UID=1000
+GID=1001
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 175a0dc3..fe5949c4 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ jobs:
     env:
       TX_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TX_TOKEN }}
       DOCKER_TAG: stable
-      COMPOSE_FILE: .docker/docker-compose.qgis.yml
+      COMPOSE_FILE: .docker/docker-compose.yml
 
     steps:
       - name: Checkout code
@@ -29,18 +29,18 @@ jobs:
       - name: Docker build
         run: |
           export SOURCE_DIR=$(pwd)
-          docker compose up --build -d
-          docker compose exec -T signalo init_db.sh wait
+          docker compose --profile qgis --profile schemaspy up --build -d
+          docker compose exec signalo init_db.sh wait
 
       - name: create dumps
         run: |
           export SOURCE_DIR=$(pwd)
-          docker compose exec -T signalo pg_dump --format custom --exclude-schema=public --blobs --compress 5 --file signalo-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-db-dump.backup signalo
-          docker compose exec -T signalo pg_dump --format plain --exclude-schema=public --file signalo-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-db-dump.sql signalo
-          docker compose exec -T signalo pg_dump --format plain --schema=signalo_app --file signalo-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-db-app.sql signalo
-          docker compose exec -T signalo init_db.sh build -d
-          docker compose exec -T signalo pg_dump --format custom --exclude-schema=public --blobs --compress 5 --file signalo-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-db-dump-with-demo.backup signalo
-          docker compose exec -T signalo pg_dump --format plain --exclude-schema=public --file signalo-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-db-dump-with-demo.sql signalo
+          docker compose exec signalo pg_dump --format custom --exclude-schema=public --blobs --compress 5 --file signalo-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-db-dump.backup signalo
+          docker compose exec signalo pg_dump --format plain --exclude-schema=public --file signalo-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-db-dump.sql signalo
+          docker compose exec signalo pg_dump --format plain --schema=signalo_app --file signalo-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-db-app.sql signalo
+          docker compose exec signalo init_db.sh build -d
+          docker compose exec signalo pg_dump --format custom --exclude-schema=public --blobs --compress 5 --file signalo-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-db-dump-with-demo.backup signalo
+          docker compose exec signalo pg_dump --format plain --exclude-schema=public --file signalo-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-db-dump-with-demo.sql signalo
 
       - name: translate project
         run: |
@@ -58,20 +58,15 @@ jobs:
           cp data_model/demo_data/this-is-the-way.jpg project/this-is-the-way.jpg
           zip -r signalo-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-project.zip project README.md
 
-      - name: "zip changelogs"
+      - name: zip changelogs
         run: |
           zip -r signalo-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-changelogs.zip data_model/changelogs
 
-      - name: SchemaSpy
+      - name: schemaspy
         run: |
-          sudo apt-get install -y openjdk-8-jdk graphviz
-          wget https://github.com/schemaspy/schemaspy/releases/download/v6.1.0/schemaspy-6.1.0.jar
-          wget https://jdbc.postgresql.org/download/postgresql-42.2.24.jar -O postgresql.jar
-          java -jar schemaspy-6.1.0.jar -t pgsql -db signalo -u postgres -host localhost -p postgres \
-               -schemas signalo_db,signalo_app -norows \
-               -hq -o model-documentation -dp postgresql.jar \
-               -desc "signalo data model documentation (version ${{ github.event.release.tag_name }})"
-          zip -r signalo-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-model-documentation.zip model-documentation/*
+          sed -i "s/version dev/version ${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}/" data_model/schemaspy.properties
+          docker compose run schemaspy
+          zip -r signalo-${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}-model-documentation.zip datamodel/schemaspy/*
 
       - name: Login to DockerHub
         if: github.event_name != 'pull_request'
diff --git a/data_model/schemaspy.properties b/data_model/schemaspy.properties
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..457c646d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data_model/schemaspy.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+schemaspy.t=pgsql11
+schemaspy.host=signalo
+schemaspy.port=5432
+schemaspy.db=signalo
+schemaspy.u=postgres
+schemaspy.p=postgres
+schemaspy.schemas=signalo_db,signalo_app
+schemaspy.desc='signalo data model documentation (version dev)'