diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 2aa3c05..88f936b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -14,3 +14,5 @@ config.yaml
 .python-version
 .tox/
 *.swp
+.vscode
+.tool-versions
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 3f3ad15..ec4c06d 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ services:
       - .:/app
       - results:/results
     entrypoint: ["celery", "--app", "quarry.web.worker", "worker", ]
+    extra_hosts:
+    - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway"
     depends_on:
       - "db"
       - "redis"
diff --git a/quarry/default_config.yaml b/quarry/default_config.yaml
index e74d3ac..90cc3b0 100644
--- a/quarry/default_config.yaml
+++ b/quarry/default_config.yaml
@@ -15,12 +15,22 @@ task_acks_late: True  # Tasks are idempotent!
 task_track_started: True
 worker_prefetch_multiplier: 1 # Tasks can run for a long time
 
+# Run queries against the live wikimedia replica databases. This requires a
+# toolforge account, so that you can retrieve your credentials from
+# ~/replica.my.cnf (and log into toolforge to establish the SOCKS5 proxy). These
+# lines should remain commented if you're not using a SOCKS5 proxy. The IP
+# address of the host running the docker container. On Windows or macOS this
+# might be `host.docker.internal`.
+# REPLICA_SOCKS5_PROXY_HOST: '172.17.0.1'
+# REPLICA_SOCKS5_PROXY_PORT: 1080
+
+
 # Run queries against a fake wiki database
-REPLICA_DOMAIN: ''
-REPLICA_HOST: 'mywiki'
-REPLICA_DB: 'mywiki_p'
-REPLICA_USER: 'repl'
-REPLICA_PASSWORD: 'repl'
+# Change these 3 lines if you're using the live replicas.
+REPLICA_DOMAIN: ''  # Change to `analytics.db.svc.wikimedia.cloud` for live replicas
+REPLICA_USER: 'repl'  # For live replicas, your replica.my.cnf username
+REPLICA_PASSWORD: 'repl'  # For live replicas, your replica.my.cnf password
+
 REPLICA_PORT: 3306
 OUTPUT_PATH_TEMPLATE: '/results/%s/%s/%s.sqlite'
 REDIS_HOST: 'redis'
diff --git a/quarry/web/replica.py b/quarry/web/replica.py
index e02116f..9c2450a 100644
--- a/quarry/web/replica.py
+++ b/quarry/web/replica.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import pymysql
+import socks
 
 
 class ReplicaConnectionException(Exception):
@@ -18,6 +19,7 @@ def _db_name_mangler(self):
 
         if self.dbname == "meta" or self.dbname == "meta_p":
             self.database_name = "s7"
+
             self.database_p = "meta_p"
         elif self.dbname == "centralauth" or self.dbname == "centralauth_p":
             self.database_name = "s7"
@@ -55,15 +57,29 @@ def connection(self, db):
             if self.config["REPLICA_DOMAIN"]
             else self.database_name
         )
-        self._replica = pymysql.connect(
-            host=repl_host,
-            db=self.database_p,
-            user=self.config["REPLICA_USER"],
-            passwd=self.config["REPLICA_PASSWORD"],
-            port=self.config["REPLICA_PORT"],
-            charset="utf8",
-            client_flag=pymysql.constants.CLIENT.MULTI_STATEMENTS,
-        )
+        connect_opts = {
+            "db": self.database_p,
+            "user": self.config["REPLICA_USER"],
+            "passwd": self.config["REPLICA_PASSWORD"],
+            "charset": "utf8",
+            "client_flag": pymysql.constants.CLIENT.MULTI_STATEMENTS,
+        }
+
+        if not self.config.get("REPLICA_SOCKS5_PROXY_HOST"):
+            self._replica = pymysql.connect(
+                host=repl_host, port=self.config["REPLICA_PORT"], **connect_opts
+            )
+        else:
+            self._replica = pymysql.connect(defer_connect=True, **connect_opts)
+
+            sock = socks.socksocket()
+            sock.set_proxy(
+                socks.SOCKS5,
+                addr=self.config["REPLICA_SOCKS5_PROXY_HOST"],
+                port=self.config["REPLICA_SOCKS5_PROXY_PORT"],
+            )
+            sock.connect((repl_host, self.config["REPLICA_PORT"]))
+            self._replica.connect(sock=sock)
 
     @connection.deleter
     def connection(self):
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 3ebd09b..1ffa1f7 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -31,3 +31,4 @@ importlib-metadata==4.6.3
 zipp==3.5.0
 typing-extensions==3.10.0.0
 flask_caching==2.0.2
+PySocks==1.7.1