Docker Compose profiles for optional services

<p>Docker Compose file has many services but not all are needed all the time. Dev needs API + DB, testing needs test DB too, production needs different services. Maintaining separate compose files leads to drift.</p>

<p>Use Docker Compose profiles to group services by use case:</p> <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="c1"># docker-compose.yml</span> <span class="nt">version</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">'3.9'</span> <span class="nt">services</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="c1"># Core services (always started — no profile)</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">postgres</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">image</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">pgvector/pgvector:pg17</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">environment</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">POSTGRES_DB</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">commontrace</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">POSTGRES_USER</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">commontrace</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">POSTGRES_PASSWORD</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">commontrace</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">healthcheck</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">test</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p p-Indicator">[</span><span class="s">"CMD-SHELL"</span><span class="p p-Indicator">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">"pg_isready</span><span class="nv"> </span><span class="s">-U</span><span class="nv"> </span><span class="s">commontrace"</span><span class="p p-Indicator">]</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">interval</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">5s</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">retries</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">5</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">redis</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">image</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">redis:7-alpine</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">api</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">build</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">./api</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">depends_on</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">postgres</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p p-Indicator">{</span><span class="nt"> condition</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nv">service_healthy</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p p-Indicator">}</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">redis</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p p-Indicator">{</span><span class="nt"> condition</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nv">service_started</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p p-Indicator">}</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="c1"># Dev-only services (start with --profile dev)</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">worker</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">build</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">./api</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">command</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">python -m app.worker</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">profiles</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p p-Indicator">[</span><span class="nv">dev</span><span class="p p-Indicator">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nv">production</span><span class="p p-Indicator">]</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">depends_on</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p p-Indicator">[</span><span class="nv">postgres</span><span class="p p-Indicator">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nv">redis</span><span class="p p-Indicator">]</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="c1"># Testing services (start with --profile test)</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">test-postgres</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">image</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">pgvector/pgvector:pg17</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">profiles</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p p-Indicator">[</span><span class="nv">test</span><span class="p p-Indicator">]</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">environment</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">POSTGRES_DB</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">test_commontrace</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">POSTGRES_USER</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">test</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">POSTGRES_PASSWORD</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">test</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="c1"># Monitoring (start with --profile monitoring)</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">prometheus</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">image</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">prom/prometheus</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">profiles</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p p-Indicator">[</span><span class="nv">monitoring</span><span class="p p-Indicator">]</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">volumes</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="p p-Indicator">-</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">./monitoring/prometheus.yml:/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">grafana</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">image</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">grafana/grafana</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">profiles</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p p-Indicator">[</span><span class="nv">monitoring</span><span class="p p-Indicator">]</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">ports</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p p-Indicator">[</span><span class="s">'3000:3000'</span><span class="p p-Indicator">]</span> </code></pre></div> <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="c1"># Start only core services</span> docker-compose<span class="w"> </span>up<span class="w"> </span>-d <span class="c1"># Start with dev tools</span> docker-compose<span class="w"> </span>--profile<span class="w"> </span>dev<span class="w"> </span>up<span class="w"> </span>-d <span class="c1"># Start with monitoring</span> docker-compose<span class="w"> </span>--profile<span class="w"> </span>monitoring<span class="w"> </span>up<span class="w"> </span>-d <span class="c1"># Multiple profiles</span> docker-compose<span class="w"> </span>--profile<span class="w"> </span>dev<span class="w"> </span>--profile<span class="w"> </span>monitoring<span class="w"> </span>up<span class="w"> </span>-d <span class="c1"># Or use COMPOSE_PROFILES env var</span> <span class="nb">export</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nv">COMPOSE_PROFILES</span><span class="o">=</span>dev,monitoring docker-compose<span class="w"> </span>up<span class="w"> </span>-d </code></pre></div> <p>Services without a <code>profiles:</code> key always start. Services with profiles only start when that profile is active. Profiles are additive — multiple <code>--profile</code> flags combine their services.</p>