diff --git a/conf/web.yml b/conf/web.yml
--- a/conf/web.yml
+++ b/conf/web.yml
@@ -39,3 +39,5 @@
   site_key: ''
 
 serve_assets: yes
+
+development_db: /tmp/db.sqlite3
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -214,14 +214,12 @@
       - swh-idx-storage
     environment:
       VERBOSITY: 3
-      DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE: localsettings
+      DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE: swh.web.settings.development
       SWH_CONFIG_FILENAME: /web.yml
-      PYTHONPATH: /srv/softwareheritage
     entrypoint: /entrypoint.sh
     volumes:
       - "./conf/web.yml:/web.yml:ro"
       - "./services/swh-web/entrypoint.sh:/entrypoint.sh:ro"
-      - "./services/swh-web/settings.py:/srv/softwareheritage/localsettings.py:ro"
 
   swh-deposit-db:
     image: postgres:11
diff --git a/services/swh-web/settings.py b/services/swh-web/settings.py
deleted file mode 100644
--- a/services/swh-web/settings.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-import os
-from django.core.cache import cache
-
-from swh.web.settings.common import * # noqa
-MIDDLEWARE += ['swh.web.common.middlewares.HtmlPrettifyMiddleware']
-
-AUTH_PASSWORD_VALIDATORS = []  # disable any pwd validation mechanism
-
-DATABASES['default']['NAME'] = os.path.join(
-    os.environ.get('HOME', '/tmp'), 'db.sqlite3')
-
-cache.clear()