Agent Wranglers

Containers Recommended

Run the same images locally with Compose

Describe the local setup in one Compose file that uses the production images and versions, so the app runs the same way on every laptop.

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated .

How to do it

Build the app from the same Dockerfile, and pin every other service, such as the database, to the version production runs. Keep secrets in a local .env file that .dockerignore and version control both leave out. Use docker compose watch to rebuild on changes.

Example

services:
  web:
    build: .
    init: true
    read_only: true
    tmpfs: [/tmp]
    env_file: .env
    ports: ["8080:8080"]
  db:
    image: postgres:17.6-alpine

How to check

On a clean machine, docker compose up --wait exits 0 once every service is healthy, and the database reports the same major version as production.

For agents: if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in Based on the Agent Wranglers operations playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/containers/compose-for-local.