Docker Compose is a tool for running multi-container applications on Docker defined using the Compose file format. A Compose file is used to define how the one or more containers that make up your application are configured. Once you have a Compose file, you can create and start your application with a single command: docker-compose up.

Compose files can be used to deploy applications locally, or to the cloud on Amazon ECS or Microsoft ACI using the Docker CLI. You can read more about how to do this:

• Compose for Amazon ECS
• Compose for Microsoft ACI

Docker Compose is included in Docker Desktop for Windows and macOS.

You can download Docker Compose binaries from the release page on this repository.

If your platform is not supported, you can download Docker Compose using pip:

pip install docker-compose

Note: Docker Compose requires Python 3.6 or later.

Using Docker Compose is basically a three-step process:

1. Define your app's environment with a Dockerfile so it can be reproduced anywhere.
2. Define the services that make up your app in docker-compose.yml so they can be run together in an isolated environment.
3. Lastly, run docker-compose up and Compose will start and run your entire app.

A Compose file looks like this:

services:
  web:
    build: .
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"
    volumes:
      - .:/code
  redis:
    image: redis

You can find examples of Compose applications in our Awesome Compose repository.

For more information about the Compose format, see the Compose file reference.

Want to help develop Docker Compose? Check out our contributing documentation.

If you find an issue, please report it on the issue tracker.

Releases are built by maintainers, following an outline of the release process.