diff --git a/compute_tools/src/bin/compute_ctl.rs b/compute_tools/src/bin/compute_ctl.rs
index 47fc9cb7fe..522743d7bb 100644
--- a/compute_tools/src/bin/compute_ctl.rs
+++ b/compute_tools/src/bin/compute_ctl.rs
@@ -130,10 +130,10 @@ struct Cli {
     #[arg(short = 'S', long, group = "spec-path")]
     pub spec_path: Option<OsString>,
 
-    #[arg(short = 'i', long, group = "compute-id", conflicts_with_all = ["spec", "spec-path"])]
-    pub compute_id: Option<String>,
+    #[arg(short = 'i', long, group = "compute-id")]
+    pub compute_id: String,
 
-    #[arg(short = 'p', long, conflicts_with_all = ["spec", "spec-path"], requires = "compute-id", value_name = "CONTROL_PLANE_API_BASE_URL")]
+    #[arg(short = 'p', long, conflicts_with_all = ["spec", "spec-path"], value_name = "CONTROL_PLANE_API_BASE_URL")]
     pub control_plane_uri: Option<String>,
 }
 
@@ -259,20 +259,11 @@ fn try_spec_from_cli(cli: &Cli) -> Result<CliSpecParams> {
         });
     }
 
-    if cli.compute_id.is_none() {
-        panic!(
-            "compute spec should be provided by one of the following ways: \
-                --spec OR --spec-path OR --control-plane-uri and --compute-id"
-        );
-    };
     if cli.control_plane_uri.is_none() {
-        panic!("must specify both --control-plane-uri and --compute-id or none");
+        panic!("must specify --control-plane-uri");
     };
 
-    match get_spec_from_control_plane(
-        cli.control_plane_uri.as_ref().unwrap(),
-        cli.compute_id.as_ref().unwrap(),
-    ) {
+    match get_spec_from_control_plane(cli.control_plane_uri.as_ref().unwrap(), &cli.compute_id) {
         Ok(spec) => Ok(CliSpecParams {
             spec,
             live_config_allowed: true,
@@ -319,6 +310,7 @@ fn wait_spec(
     let tokio_conn_conf = tokio_postgres::config::Config::from_str(connstr.as_str())
         .context("cannot build tokio postgres config from connstr")?;
     let compute_node = ComputeNode {
+        compute_id: cli.compute_id.clone(),
         connstr,
         conn_conf,
         tokio_conn_conf,
diff --git a/compute_tools/src/compute.rs b/compute_tools/src/compute.rs
index fd76e404c6..5fc5615d61 100644
--- a/compute_tools/src/compute.rs
+++ b/compute_tools/src/compute.rs
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@ pub static PG_PID: AtomicU32 = AtomicU32::new(0);
 
 /// Compute node info shared across several `compute_ctl` threads.
 pub struct ComputeNode {
+    /// The ID of the compute
+    pub compute_id: String,
     // Url type maintains proper escaping
     pub connstr: url::Url,
     // We connect to Postgres from many different places, so build configs once
diff --git a/control_plane/src/endpoint.rs b/control_plane/src/endpoint.rs
index bc86d09103..869f48a243 100644
--- a/control_plane/src/endpoint.rs
+++ b/control_plane/src/endpoint.rs
@@ -44,6 +44,8 @@ use std::process::Command;
 use std::str::FromStr;
 use std::sync::Arc;
 use std::time::Duration;
+use std::time::SystemTime;
+use std::time::UNIX_EPOCH;
 
 use anyhow::{anyhow, bail, Context, Result};
 use compute_api::spec::Database;
@@ -665,6 +667,18 @@ impl Endpoint {
                     .to_str()
                     .unwrap(),
             ])
+            // TODO: It would be nice if we generated compute IDs with the same
+            // algorithm as the real control plane.
+            .args([
+                "--compute-id",
+                &format!(
+                    "compute-{}",
+                    SystemTime::now()
+                        .duration_since(UNIX_EPOCH)
+                        .unwrap()
+                        .as_secs()
+                ),
+            ])
             .stdin(std::process::Stdio::null())
             .stderr(logfile.try_clone()?)
             .stdout(logfile);
diff --git a/docker-compose/compute_wrapper/shell/compute.sh b/docker-compose/compute_wrapper/shell/compute.sh
index b4f8d3d66a..9dbdcce69f 100755
--- a/docker-compose/compute_wrapper/shell/compute.sh
+++ b/docker-compose/compute_wrapper/shell/compute.sh
@@ -77,4 +77,5 @@ echo "Start compute node"
 /usr/local/bin/compute_ctl --pgdata /var/db/postgres/compute \
      -C "postgresql://cloud_admin@localhost:55433/postgres"  \
      -b /usr/local/bin/postgres                              \
+     --compute-id "compute-$RANDOM"                          \
      -S ${SPEC_FILE}