Development

Keep your Compose stack flexible! Profiles let you include or exclude services based on your current needs. Basic profiles Define optional services with profiles: services: app: image: myapp:latest ports: - "3000:3000" # No profile - always starts debug: image: debug-tools profiles: - debug # Only starts with --profile debug test-db: image: postgres:15 profiles: - test environment: POSTGRES_DB: test_db Starting with profiles Choose which services to include: ...

Keep production and development configs separate. Docker Compose automatically merges compose.override.yml for local development tweaks. The magic Compose automatically loads two files: compose.yml (base configuration) compose.override.yml (local overrides) # These are equivalent: docker compose up docker compose -f compose.yml -f compose.override.yml up Basic setup compose.yml (production-ready): services: web: image: myapp:latest ports: - "80:80" environment: NODE_ENV: production LOG_LEVEL: warn compose.override.yml (developer-friendly): services: web: build: . # Build locally instead of using image ports: - "3000:80" # Different port for development volumes: - .:/app # Mount source code environment: NODE_ENV: development LOG_LEVEL: debug DEBUG: "true" Real development example compose.yml: ...

Stop manually restarting containers when code changes. Docker Compose Watch automatically syncs files and reloads services - zero interruption development. The basics Enable watch mode with: docker compose up --watch # If you don't want mixed logs, you can run it in a dedicated process, you need to have your stack started on its own process docker compose watch Then configure watching in your compose.yml: services: web: image: node:20 command: npm start develop: watch: - path: ./src target: /app/src action: sync - path: package.json action: rebuild Files in ./src sync instantly. Changes to package.json trigger a rebuild. ...