diff --git a/api/justfile b/api/justfile
index e40f2819201..c5e1afa77c3 100644
--- a/api/justfile
+++ b/api/justfile
@@ -79,8 +79,8 @@ stats media="images" host="localhost:50280":
     just _curl-get "{{ media }}/stats/" {{ host }}
 
 # Launch a `pgcli` shell in the web container
-pgcli db_host="db" db_port="5432" db_name="openledger" db_user="deploy" db_password="deploy": up
-    env DC_USER="opener" just ../exec web pgcli postgresql://{{ db_user }}:{{ db_password }}@{{ db_host }}:{{ db_port }}/{{ db_name }}
+pgcli db_user_pass="deploy" db_name="openledger": up
+    env DC_USER="opener" just ../_pgcli web {{ db_user_pass }} {{ db_name }} db
 
 #########################
 # Django administration #
diff --git a/catalog/justfile b/catalog/justfile
index 4daf04650f2..9689c226759 100644
--- a/catalog/justfile
+++ b/catalog/justfile
@@ -85,8 +85,8 @@ ipython: up-deps
         bash -c \'ipython\'
 
 # Launch a `pgcli` shell in the PostgreSQL container
-pgcli db_host="upstream_db" db_port="5432" db_name="openledger" db_user="airflow" db_password="airflow": up
-    just ../exec upstream_db pgcli postgresql://{{ db_user }}:{{ db_password }}@{{ db_host }}:{{ db_port }}/{{ db_name }}
+pgcli db_user_pass="deploy" db_name="openledger": up
+    just ../_pgcli upstream_db {{ db_user_pass }} {{ db_name }} upstream_db
 
 #########
 # Tests #
diff --git a/justfile b/justfile
index 098dbc10691..c516ed5b6d4 100644
--- a/justfile
+++ b/justfile
@@ -206,6 +206,10 @@ exec +args:
 run +args:
     just dc run -u {{ env_var_or_default("DC_USER", "root") }} {{ EXEC_DEFAULTS }} "{{ args }}"
 
+# Execute pgcli against one of the database instances
+_pgcli container db_user_pass db_name db_host db_port="5432":
+    just exec {{ container }} pgcli postgresql://{{ db_user_pass }}:{{ db_user_pass }}@{{ db_host }}:{{ db_port }}/{{ db_name }}
+
 ########
 # Misc #
 ########