diff --git a/docker/HOW_TO_USE_DOCKER.md b/docker/HOW_TO_USE_DOCKER.md
index 6a429ba2db7e5e02aed235e99f17f44220ba6c0a..0fa0346e53f4a88fb5d685437b1457cce929a1c1 100644
--- a/docker/HOW_TO_USE_DOCKER.md
+++ b/docker/HOW_TO_USE_DOCKER.md
@@ -49,6 +49,18 @@ CHROMA_ENDPOINT='http://host.docker.internal:8000' # Allow docker to look on hos
 
 ```
 
+### Common questions and fixes
+
+# API is not working, cannot login, LLM is "offline"?
+You are likely running the docker container on a remote machine like EC2 or some other instance where the reachable URL
+is not `http://localhost:3001` and instead is something like `http://193.xx.xx.xx:3001` - in this case all you need to do is add the following to your `frontend/.env.production` before running `docker-compose up -d --build`
+```
+# frontend/.env.production
+GENERATE_SOURCEMAP=false
+VITE_API_BASE="http://<YOUR_REACHABLE_IP_ADDRESS>:3001/api"
+```
+For example, if the docker instance is available on `192.186.1.222` your `VITE_API_BASE` would look like `VITE_API_BASE="http://192.186.1.222:3001/api"` in `frontend/.env.production`.
+
 ## Still not working?
 [Ask for help on Discord](https://discord.gg/6UyHPeGZAC)
 
diff --git a/frontend/.env.production b/frontend/.env.production
index 4f79a0f8e2c453e3d66ea13e945c81f1fcafab78..e22e4b58978c2392f5737a8cfe6f56aef53c4dbc 100644
--- a/frontend/.env.production
+++ b/frontend/.env.production
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
-GENERATE_SOURCEMAP=false
\ No newline at end of file
+GENERATE_SOURCEMAP=false
+# VITE_API_BASE="http://example.com/api"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/server/endpoints/utils.js b/server/endpoints/utils.js
index c9b946dfdd0879822525d2f83bb90860748602fd..82be00f9d7345d66054d453e5bd08feed8c42c1d 100644
--- a/server/endpoints/utils.js
+++ b/server/endpoints/utils.js
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 const { SystemSettings } = require("../models/systemSettings");
 
 function getGitVersion() {
-  return require("child_process")
-    .execSync("git rev-parse HEAD")
-    .toString()
-    .trim();
+  try {
+    return require("child_process")
+      .execSync("git rev-parse HEAD")
+      .toString()
+      .trim();
+  } catch (e) {
+    console.error("getGitVersion", e.message);
+    return "--";
+  }
 }
 
 function byteToGigaByte(n) {