Laravel 5 is not reading mysql connection (docker) ubuntu

I have a docker environment that runs my laravel 5 app and mysql connection needs to use --protocol=TCP. I have added in my.cnf on my machine.

[client]
protocol=TCP

Is there a way I can get my project to use protocol=TCP. The current error I get when I run my project and it needs to use the database I get

PDO Connection Error: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock'

I have configured my database file in my app but it does not have an area where I can force it to use protocol=TCP.

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