diff --git a/docker/build.sh b/docker/build.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..26f9cdf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/build.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+DOCKER_DIR="./docker"
+
+if ! [ -d "$DOCKER_DIR" ] ; then
+    echo "can't find $DOCKER_DIR dir"
+    echo "are you running run/build.sh from swh-graph root directory?"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+docker build --tag swh-graph docker/
diff --git a/docker/run.sh b/docker/run.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..f571540
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/run.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+die_usage() {
+    echo "Usage: docker/run.sh GRAPH_DIR"
+    exit 1
+}
+
+graph_dir="$1"
+if [ -z "$graph_dir" -o ! -d "$graph_dir" ] ; then
+    die_usage
+fi
+
+docker run -ti \
+       --volume "$graph_dir":/srv/softwareheritage/graph/data \
+       --publish 127.0.0.1:5009:5009 \
+       swh-graph:latest \
+       bash
diff --git a/docs/docker.rst b/docs/docker.rst
index 62434c2..ddaccaf 100644
--- a/docs/docker.rst
+++ b/docs/docker.rst
@@ -1,58 +1,70 @@
 Docker environment
 ==================
 
 
 Build
 -----
 
 .. code:: bash
 
     $ git clone https://forge.softwareheritage.org/source/swh-graph.git
     $ cd swh-graph
     $ docker build --tag swh-graph docker/
 
+``docker/build.sh`` also exists as an alias for the last line.
+
 
 Run
 ---
 
 Given a graph ``g`` specified by:
 
 - ``g.edges.csv.zst``: zstd-compressed CSV file with one edge per line, as a
   "SRC_ID SPACE DST_ID" string, where identifiers are the
   :ref:`persistent-identifiers` of each node.
 - ``g.nodes.csv.zst``: sorted list of unique node identifiers appearing in the
   corresponding ``g.edges.csv.zst`` file. The format is a zst-compressed CSV
   file (single column) with one persistent identifier per line.
 
 .. code:: bash
 
     $ docker run -ti \
         --volume /PATH/TO/GRAPH/:/srv/softwareheritage/graph/data \
         --publish 127.0.0.1:5009:5009 \
         swh-graph:latest \
         bash
 
+or, as a shortcut:
+
+.. code:: bash
+
+    $ docker/run.sh /PATH/TO/GRAPH/
+
 Where ``/PATH/TO/GRAPH`` is a directory containing the ``g.edges.csv.zst`` and
 ``g.nodes.csv.zst`` files.  By default, when entering the container the current
 working directory will be ``/srv/softwareheritage/graph``; all relative paths
 found below are intended to be relative to that dir.
 
 
 Graph compression
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-To compress the graph:
+To compress the graph (from within the docker container):
 
 .. code:: bash
 
-    $ swh graph compress --graph data/g --outdir data/compressed
+    $ docker/run.sh /PATH/TO/GRAPH/
+    root@7f3306806861:/srv/softwareheritage/graph# \
+        swh graph compress --graph data/g --outdir data/compressed
 
 
 Graph server
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-To start the swh-graph server:
+To start the swh-graph server (from within the docker container):
 
 .. code:: bash
 
-    $ swh graph rpc-serve --graph data/compressed/g
+    $ docker/run.sh /PATH/TO/GRAPH/
+    root@7f3306806861:/srv/softwareheritage/graph# \
+        swh graph rpc-serve --graph data/compressed/g