diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 904d79e3a02..3bb635f5536 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ For upgrade instructions, please check the [migration guide](MIGRATIONS.md).
 - The mapping selection dropbown is now sorted alphabetically. [#3864](https://github.com/scalableminds/webknossos/pull/3864)
 - The HTML template now includes SEO tags for demo instances and hides internal instances from search engines.
 - A maximize-button was added to the viewports in the annotation view. Maximization can also be toggled with the `.` shortcut. [#3876](https://github.com/scalableminds/webknossos/pull/3876)
+- [webknossos-connect](https://github.com/scalableminds/webknossos-connect) now starts with webKnossos on local and development instances by default. [#3913](https://github.com/scalableminds/webknossos/pull/3913)
 
 ### Changed
 - Improved the flight mode performance for tracings with very large trees (>80.000 nodes). [#3880](https://github.com/scalableminds/webknossos/pull/3880)
diff --git a/app/controllers/InitialDataController.scala b/app/controllers/InitialDataController.scala
index d835bc670bb..bc19efd576e 100644
--- a/app/controllers/InitialDataController.scala
+++ b/app/controllers/InitialDataController.scala
@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ Samplecountry
     for {
       _ <- insertLocalDataStoreIfEnabled
       _ <- insertLocalTracingStoreIfEnabled
+      _ <- insertConnectDataStoreIfEnabled
       _ <- assertInitialDataEnabled
       _ <- assertNoOrganizationsPresent
       _ <- insertOrganization
@@ -211,6 +212,16 @@ Samplecountry
       }
     } else Fox.successful(())
 
+  def insertConnectDataStoreIfEnabled: Fox[Any] =
+    if (conf.Application.insertLocalConnectDatastore) {
+      dataStoreDAO.findOneByName("connect").futureBox.map { maybeStore =>
+        if (maybeStore.isEmpty) {
+          logger.info("inserting connect datastore")
+          dataStoreDAO.insertOne(DataStore("connect", "http://localhost:8000", "secret-key", isConnector = true))
+        }
+      }
+    } else Fox.successful(())
+
   def insertLocalTracingStoreIfEnabled: Fox[Any] =
     if (conf.Tracingstore.enabled) {
       tracingStoreDAO.findOneByName("localhost").futureBox.map { maybeStore =>
diff --git a/app/utils/WkConf.scala b/app/utils/WkConf.scala
index 8da45400f06..88abe2be36c 100644
--- a/app/utils/WkConf.scala
+++ b/app/utils/WkConf.scala
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ class WkConf @Inject()(configuration: Configuration) extends ConfigReader {
   object Application {
 
     val insertInitialData = get[Boolean]("application.insertInitialData")
+    val insertLocalConnectDatastore = get[Boolean]("application.insertLocalConnectDatastore")
     val title = get[String]("application.title")
 
     object Authentication {
@@ -125,5 +126,16 @@ class WkConf @Inject()(configuration: Configuration) extends ConfigReader {
   }
 
   val children =
-    List(Application, Http, Mail, WebKnossos, Datastore, User, Braintracing, Features, Silhouette, Airbrake, Google)
+    List(Application,
+         Http,
+         Mail,
+         WebKnossos,
+         Datastore,
+         Tracingstore,
+         User,
+         Braintracing,
+         Features,
+         Silhouette,
+         Airbrake,
+         Google)
 }
diff --git a/conf/application.conf b/conf/application.conf
index adfc452ccfa..b6897125780 100644
--- a/conf/application.conf
+++ b/conf/application.conf
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ braintracing {
 
 application {
   insertInitialData = true
+  insertLocalConnectDatastore = true
   authentication {
     enableDevAutoLogin = false
     enableDevAutoAdmin = false
diff --git a/conf/connect/.gitignore b/conf/connect/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0ca687ac137
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conf/connect/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+datasets.json
diff --git a/conf/connect/config.json b/conf/connect/config.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0b758441137
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conf/connect/config.json
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+{
+    "server": {"host": "0.0.0.0", "port": 8000, "url": "http://localhost:8000"},
+    "datastore": {"name": "connect", "key": "secret-key"},
+    "webknossos": {"url": "http://localhost:9000"},
+    "backends": {"neuroglancer": {}},
+    "datasets_path": "data/datasets.json"
+}
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 6623d558908..cf0b0d13f3c 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -12,11 +12,14 @@ services:
       - "fossildb-persisted:fossildb"
       - "postgres-persisted:postgres"
       - redis
+      - webknossos-connect
     depends_on:
       postgres-persisted:
         condition: service_healthy
       fossildb-persisted:
         condition: service_healthy
+      webknossos-connect:
+        condition: service_healthy
     command:
       - -Dconfig.file=conf/application.conf
       - -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true
@@ -122,11 +125,14 @@ services:
       - "fossildb-dev:fossildb"
       - "postgres-dev:postgres"
       - redis
+      - webknossos-connect
     depends_on:
       postgres-dev:
         condition: service_healthy
       fossildb-dev:
         condition: service_healthy
+      webknossos-connect:
+        condition: service_healthy
     environment:
       - POSTGRES_URL=jdbc:postgresql://postgres/webknossos
     command:
@@ -166,11 +172,14 @@ services:
       - postgres
       - fossildb
       - redis
+      - webknossos-connect
     depends_on:
       postgres:
         condition: service_healthy
       fossildb:
         condition: service_healthy
+      webknossos-connect:
+        condition: service_healthy
     environment:
       - POSTGRES_URL=jdbc:postgresql://postgres/webknossos_testing
     command:
@@ -195,6 +204,13 @@ services:
       - ".:/home/pptruser/webknossos"
     user: ${USER_UID:-1000}:${USER_GID:-1000}
 
+  # webKnossos-connect
+  webknossos-connect:
+    image: scalableminds/webknossos-connect:master__190
+    volumes:
+      - "./conf/connect:/app/data"
+    network_mode: host
+
   # Postgres
   postgres:
     image: postgres:10-alpine
diff --git a/frontend/javascripts/test/snapshots/public/test-bundle/test/backend-snapshot-tests/misc.e2e.js.md b/frontend/javascripts/test/snapshots/public/test-bundle/test/backend-snapshot-tests/misc.e2e.js.md
index 3ed875ad62b..1182edc01fb 100644
--- a/frontend/javascripts/test/snapshots/public/test-bundle/test/backend-snapshot-tests/misc.e2e.js.md
+++ b/frontend/javascripts/test/snapshots/public/test-bundle/test/backend-snapshot-tests/misc.e2e.js.md
@@ -44,6 +44,13 @@ Generated by [AVA](https://ava.li).
 ## misc-datastores
 
     [
+      {
+        isConnector: true,
+        isForeign: false,
+        isScratch: false,
+        name: 'connect',
+        url: 'http://localhost:8000',
+      },
       {
         isConnector: false,
         isForeign: false,
diff --git a/frontend/javascripts/test/snapshots/public/test-bundle/test/backend-snapshot-tests/misc.e2e.js.snap b/frontend/javascripts/test/snapshots/public/test-bundle/test/backend-snapshot-tests/misc.e2e.js.snap
index f166f529e96..12ad6b9d058 100644
Binary files a/frontend/javascripts/test/snapshots/public/test-bundle/test/backend-snapshot-tests/misc.e2e.js.snap and b/frontend/javascripts/test/snapshots/public/test-bundle/test/backend-snapshot-tests/misc.e2e.js.snap differ
diff --git a/test/db/dataStores.csv b/test/db/dataStores.csv
index b3b56bfa6d8..0d4f93383fd 100644
--- a/test/db/dataStores.csv
+++ b/test/db/dataStores.csv
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 name,url,key,isScratch,isDeleted,isForeign,isConnector
 'localhost','http://localhost:9000','something-secure',f,f,f,f
+'connect','http://localhost:8000','secret-key',f,f,f,t
diff --git a/tools/proxy/proxy.js b/tools/proxy/proxy.js
index e20ecafb9b0..7294f255c47 100644
--- a/tools/proxy/proxy.js
+++ b/tools/proxy/proxy.js
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ const processes = {
       shell: true,
     },
   ),
+  connect: spawnIfNotSpecified("noConnect", "docker-compose run --rm webknossos-connect", [], {
+    cwd: ROOT,
+    shell: true,
+  }),
 };
 
 function spawnIfNotSpecified(keyword, command, args, options) {