Docker Compose: Orchestrating Multi-Container Applications

Docker Compose lets you define your entire application stack in a single YAML file and spin everything up with one command. It is the standard for local development environments.

A Complete Laravel Stack

services:
  app:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html
    depends_on:
      - mysql
      - redis
    environment:
      DB_HOST: mysql
      REDIS_HOST: redis
    networks:
      - app-network

  mysql:
    image: mysql:8.0
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: secret
      MYSQL_DATABASE: laravel
    volumes:
      - mysql_data:/var/lib/mysql
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"
    networks:
      - app-network

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    ports:
      - "6379:6379"
    networks:
      - app-network

  queue:
    build: .
    command: php artisan queue:work --tries=3
    depends_on:
      - mysql
      - redis
    networks:
      - app-network

volumes:
  mysql_data:

networks:
  app-network:
    driver: bridge

Key Commands

# Start all services in background
docker compose up -d

# View logs from all services
docker compose logs -f

# Rebuild after Dockerfile changes
docker compose up -d --build

# Stop and remove everything
docker compose down

# Stop and remove including volumes
docker compose down -v

Health Checks

mysql:
  image: mysql:8.0
  healthcheck:
    test: ["CMD", "mysqladmin", "ping", "-h", "localhost"]
    interval: 10s
    timeout: 5s
    retries: 5

Profiles for Optional Services

mailpit:
  image: axllent/mailpit
  profiles: ["debug"]
  ports:
    - "8025:8025"

# Only starts debug-profile services
docker compose --profile debug up -d

Compose keeps your entire development environment reproducible and shareable with your team.