diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index dd222029..ba988f73 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -41,8 +41,10 @@ test-schema::
 	@set -a; \
 	. .env; \
     if [ -z "$$writeDbUrl" ]; then \
-		echo "writeDbUrl is not set in .env"; \
-		exit 1; \
+		echo "writeDbUrl is not set in .env - using test db and running migrations"; \
+		writeDbUrl=postgresql://postgres:example@localhost:21300/postgres; \
+		make migrate; \
 	fi; \
 	adjustedUrl=$$(echo "$$writeDbUrl" | sed 's/localhost/host.docker.internal/g'); \
-	docker compose exec db bash -c "pg_dump '$$adjustedUrl' --schema-only --no-owner --no-acl > ./sql/01_schema.sql"
+	docker compose exec db bash -c "pg_dump '$$adjustedUrl' --schema-only --no-owner --no-acl > ./sql/01_schema.sql"; \
+	echo "schema dumped to ./sql/01_schema.sql"
diff --git a/ddl/run_migrations.go b/ddl/run_migrations.go
index 7125df0b..68c20233 100644
--- a/ddl/run_migrations.go
+++ b/ddl/run_migrations.go
@@ -9,12 +9,6 @@ import (
 )
 
 func RunMigrations() error {
-	fmt.Println("Running migrations...")
-	if !config.Cfg.RunMigrations {
-		fmt.Println("Skipping migrations. Set env runMigrations=true to run.")
-		return nil
-	}
-
 	cmd := exec.Command("bash", "pg_migrate.sh")
 	cmd.Dir = "ddl"
 
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 725ab8b9..d74b7274 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -23,18 +23,22 @@ func main() {
 		command = os.Args[1]
 	}
 
+	if !config.Cfg.RunMigrations && command != "migrate" {
+		fmt.Println("Skipping migrations. Set env runMigrations=true to run.")
+	} else {
+		fmt.Println("Running migrations...")
+		ddl.RunMigrations()
+	}
+
 	switch command {
 	case "server":
 		{
-			ddl.RunMigrations()
-
 			fmt.Println("Running server...")
 			as := api.NewApiServer(config.Cfg)
 			as.Serve()
 		}
 	case "indexer":
 		{
-			ddl.RunMigrations()
 			fmt.Println("Running indexer...")
 			_, err := indexer.NewIndexer(indexer.CoreIndexerConfig{
 				DbUrl: config.Cfg.WriteDbUrl,
@@ -53,7 +57,6 @@ func main() {
 		}
 	case "solana-indexer":
 		{
-			ddl.RunMigrations()
 			fmt.Println("Running solana-indexer...")
 			solanaIndexer := solana_indexer.New(config.Cfg)
 			defer solanaIndexer.Close()
@@ -70,7 +73,7 @@ func main() {
 		}
 	case "migrate":
 		{
-			ddl.RunMigrations()
+			// no-op, handled prior to switch/case
 			os.Exit(0)
 		}
 	default: