Docker Compose overview
Important
From the end of June 2023 Compose V1 won’t be supported anymore and will be removed from all Docker Desktop versions.
Make sure you switch to Compose V2 with the
docker composeCLI plugin or by activating the Use Docker Compose V2 setting in Docker Desktop. For more information, see the Evolution of Compose
Compose is a tool for defining and running multi-container Docker applications. With Compose, you use a YAML file to configure your application’s services. Then, with a single command, you create and start all the services from your configuration.
Compose works in all environments: production, staging, development, testing, as well as CI workflows. It also has commands for managing the whole lifecycle of your application:
- Start, stop, and rebuild services
- View the status of running services
- Stream the log output of running services
- Run a one-off command on a service
The key features of Compose that make it effective are:
- Have multiple isolated environments on a single host
- Preserves volume data when containers are created
- Only recreate containers that have changed
- Supports variables and moving a composition between environments
Try Compose
Learn the key concepts of Docker Compose whilst building a simple Python web application.
Explore the Compose file reference
Find information on defining services, networks, and volumes for a Docker application.
