docker-compose

Getting Started

1. Install the skill using the command above
2. Open your AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, or Cursor)
3. Reference the skill in your prompt
4. The AI will use the skill's capabilities automatically

Example Prompts

• "Deploy the latest build to the staging environment and run smoke tests"
• "Check the CI pipeline status and summarize any recent failures"

Overview

Docker Compose is a tool for defining and running multi-container applications using a declarative YAML file. It manages service definitions, networking between containers, persistent volumes, health checks, environment variables, and secrets, supporting both development workflows with hot-reload and production deployments with resource limits and logging.

Instructions

• When defining services, specify image for pre-built containers or build for Dockerfiles, set depends_on with condition: service_healthy to prevent race conditions, and use restart: unless-stopped for production resilience.
• When configuring networking, use the default bridge network for simple setups (services reach each other by name) or custom networks to isolate service groups (frontend, backend, database).
• When managing data, use named volumes for persistent data (databases, uploads), bind mounts for development source code, and tmpfs for scratch data.
• When handling secrets, use secrets or env_file with .gitignore rather than inline environment values, and use variable substitution with defaults (${DB_HOST:-localhost}).
• When setting up development, use Compose Watch for file sync and auto-rebuild, profiles for optional services (monitoring, debug tools), and compose.override.yml for dev-specific customization.
• When preparing for production, set deploy.resources.limits for CPU and memory caps, configure logging drivers with rotation, use multi-stage builds, and pin image tags to specific versions.

Examples

Example 1: Set up a full-stack development environment

User request: "Create a Docker Compose setup for a Node.js app with PostgreSQL and Redis"

Actions:

1. Define app, postgres, and redis services with health checks
2. Configure bind mounts for source code and named volumes for database data
3. Set up Compose Watch for hot-reload on file changes
4. Add .env file for database credentials with env_file reference

Output: A development environment where all services start with docker compose up, code changes hot-reload, and database data persists.

Example 2: Configure a production-ready multi-service deployment

User request: "Prepare a Docker Compose file for production with Nginx, API, and database"

Actions:

1. Define services with pinned image tags, health checks, and restart: unless-stopped
2. Set deploy.resources.limits for CPU and memory on each service
3. Configure Nginx as reverse proxy with TLS termination and upstream load balancing
4. Use Docker secrets for database passwords and API keys

Output: A production compose file with resource limits, health checks, TLS, secrets management, and automatic restart.

Guidelines

• Use health checks on every database and message queue service to prevent race conditions with depends_on.
• Use named volumes for persistent data and bind mounts only for development source code.
• Never put secrets in environment; use secrets or env_file with .gitignore.
• Set restart: unless-stopped in production so services recover from crashes automatically.
• Use profiles for optional services like monitoring and debug tools to avoid bloating the default stack.
• Pin image tags (postgres:16.2-alpine, never postgres:latest) for reproducible builds.
• Set resource limits with deploy.resources.limits to prevent one service from starving others.