diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 762c3ea2..12c1f957 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@
  * #1269: Fix the ZFS hook to support datasets with a "canmount" property of "noauto".
  * #1270: Follow symlinks when backing up borgmatic configuration files to support the "bootstrap"
    action.
+ * #1274: Add an optional override for the documentation development listen port and use Podman
+   Compose if present.
  * Add a policy about the use of generative AI in the borgmatic codebase:
    https://torsion.org/borgmatic/how-to/develop-on-borgmatic/#use-of-generative-ai
 
diff --git a/docs/how-to/develop-on-borgmatic.md b/docs/how-to/develop-on-borgmatic.md
index 7c0b9077..cefa5abe 100644
--- a/docs/how-to/develop-on-borgmatic.md
+++ b/docs/how-to/develop-on-borgmatic.md
@@ -225,9 +225,11 @@ borgmatic's developer build for documentation optionally supports using
 [Podman](https://podman.io/) instead of Docker.
 
 Setting up Podman is outside the scope of this documentation. But once you
-install and configure Podman, then `scripts/dev-docs` should automatically use
-Podman instead of Docker (make sure you have
-[`podman-compose`](https://github.com/containers/podman-compose) installed).
+install and configure Podman, then `scripts/dev-docs` automatically uses Podman
+instead of Docker and [Podman
+Compose](https://github.com/containers/podman-compose) (if present) instead of
+Docker Compose. However Podman works fine with either Podman Compose or Docker
+Compose.
 
 
 ## Use of generative AI
diff --git a/scripts/dev-docs b/scripts/dev-docs
index 405dc791..c200728c 100755
--- a/scripts/dev-docs
+++ b/scripts/dev-docs
@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@ if command -v podman-compose >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     export CONTAINER_SOCKET_PATH="${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR:-/run/user/$UID}/podman/podman.sock"
 else
     COMPOSE_CMD="docker-compose"
+    USER_PODMAN_SOCKET_PATH=/run/user/$UID/podman/podman.sock
+    export CONTAINER_SOCKET_PATH="$USER_PODMAN_SOCKET_PATH"
+
+    if [ -e "$USER_PODMAN_SOCKET_PATH" ]; then
+        export DOCKER_HOST="unix://$USER_PODMAN_SOCKET_PATH"
+    fi
 fi
 
 BUILDKIT_PROGRESS=plain $COMPOSE_CMD --file docs/docker-compose.yaml up --build --force-recreate