Docker Compose overview

Important
From July 2023 Compose V1 stopped receiving updates. It's also no longer available in new releases of Docker Desktop.
Compose V2 is included with all currently supported versions of Docker Desktop. For more information, see Migrate to Compose V2.
Docker's documentation refers to and describes Compose V2 functionality.

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:

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Install Compose

Follow the instructions on how to install Docker Compose.

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Try Compose

Learn the key concepts of Docker Compose whilst building a simple Python web application.

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View the release notes

Find out about the latest enhancements and bug fixes.