Extensions

As with Fragments, Extensions can be used to make your Compose file more efficient and easier to maintain. Extensions can also be used with anchors and aliases.

Use the prefix x- as a top-level element to modularize configurations that you want to reuse. Compose ignores any fields that start with x-, this is the sole exception where Compose silently ignores unrecognized fields.

They also can be used within any structure in a Compose file where user-defined keys are not expected. Compose uses those to enable experimental features, the same way browsers add support for custom CSS features

Example 1

x-custom:
  foo:
    - bar
    - zot

services:
  webapp:
    image: example/webapp
    x-foo: bar

service:
  backend:
    deploy:
      placement:
        x-aws-role: "arn:aws:iam::XXXXXXXXXXXX:role/foo"
        x-aws-region: "eu-west-3"
        x-azure-region: "france-central"

Example 2

x-env: &env
  environment:
    - CONFIG_KEY
    - EXAMPLE_KEY
 
services:
  first:
    <<: *env
    image: my-image:latest
  second:
    <<: *env
    image: another-image:latest

In this example, the environment variables do not belong to either of the services. They’ve been lifted out completely into the x-env extension field. This defines a new node which contains the environment field. The &env YAML anchor is used so both services can reference the extension field’s value as *env.

Example 3

x-function: &function
 labels:
   function: "true"
 depends_on:
   - gateway
 networks:
   - functions
 deploy:
   placement:
     constraints:
       - 'node.platform.os == linux'
services:
 # Node.js gives OS info about the node (Host)
 nodeinfo:
   <<: *function
   image: functions/nodeinfo:latest
   environment:
     no_proxy: "gateway"
     https_proxy: $https_proxy
 # Uses `cat` to echo back response, fastest function to execute.
 echoit:
   <<: *function
   image: functions/alpine:health
   environment:
     fprocess: "cat"
     no_proxy: "gateway"
     https_proxy: $https_proxy

The nodeinfo and echoit services both include the x-function extension via the &function anchor, then set their specific image and environment.

Example 4

Using YAML merge it is also possible to use multiple extensions and share and override additional attributes for specific needs:

x-environment: &default-environment
  FOO: BAR
  ZOT: QUIX
x-keys: &keys
  KEY: VALUE
services:
  frontend:
    image: example/webapp
    environment: 
      << : [*default-environment, *keys]
      YET_ANOTHER: VARIABLE

Note
YAML merge only applies to mappings, and can't be used with sequences.
In the example above, the environment variables are declared using the FOO: BAR mapping syntax, while the sequence syntax - FOO=BAR is only valid when no fragments are involved.

Informative Historical Notes

This section is informative. At the time of writing, the following prefixes are known to exist:

Prefix	Vendor/Organization
docker	Docker
kubernetes	Kubernetes

Specifying byte values

Values express a byte value as a string in {amount}{byte unit} format: The supported units are b (bytes), k or kb (kilo bytes), m or mb (mega bytes) and g or gb (giga bytes).

Specifying durations

Values express a duration as a string in the form of {value}{unit}. The supported units are us (microseconds), ms (milliseconds), s (seconds), m (minutes) and h (hours). Values can combine multiple values without separator.

  10ms
  40s
  1m30s
  1h5m30s20ms