Docker Compose v2 Has Free Multi-Container Orchestration — Replace Your Bash Scripts with YAML

Docker Compose v2: What Changed?

Docker Compose v2 is a complete rewrite in Go (v1 was Python). It's now a Docker CLI plugin — docker compose instead of docker-compose. Faster, more reliable, and supports profiles.

Quick Start

# compose.yaml (v2 uses this filename by default)
services:
  api:
    build: ./api
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@db:5432/mydb
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: pass
      POSTGRES_DB: mydb
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U postgres"]
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 3s
      retries: 5

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    ports:
      - "6379:6379"

volumes:
  pgdata:

docker compose up -d
docker compose logs -f api
docker compose down

Profiles: Dev vs Production

services:
  api:
    build: ./api
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine

  # Only starts with: docker compose --profile debug up
  adminer:
    image: adminer
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    profiles:
      - debug

  # Only for testing
  test-runner:
    build: ./tests
    profiles:
      - test
    depends_on:
      - api
      - db

docker compose up -d              # api + db only
docker compose --profile debug up # api + db + adminer
docker compose --profile test run test-runner  # run tests

Watch Mode (Hot Reload)

services:
  api:
    build: ./api
    develop:
      watch:
        - action: sync
          path: ./api/src
          target: /app/src
        - action: rebuild
          path: ./api/package.json

docker compose watch  # auto-syncs file changes

v1 vs v2 Migration

v1	v2
docker-compose	docker compose
docker-compose.yml	compose.yaml
version: "3.8"	No version needed
Python, slower	Go, 2-5x faster
Separate binary	Docker plugin

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