diff --git a/tests/unit/app-json.bats b/tests/unit/app-json.bats
index 1bd0d2f03..2c4d6517a 100644
--- a/tests/unit/app-json.bats
+++ b/tests/unit/app-json.bats
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ teardown() {
 }
 
 @test "(app-json) app.json dockerfile release" {
-  run /bin/bash -c "dokku config:set --no-restart $TEST_APP SECRET_KEY=fjdkslafjdk ENVIRONMENT=dev"
+  run /bin/bash -c "dokku config:set --no-restart $TEST_APP SECRET_KEY=fjdkslafjdk ENVIRONMENT=dev DATABASE_URL=sqlite:///db.sqlite3"
   echo "output: $output"
   echo "status: $status"
   assert_success