DEV Community: HiroItozzz

Stop Typing Long Docker Compose Commands — compose-lazy Does It Interactively

HiroItozzz — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 05:25:22 +0000

If you work with Docker Compose daily, you've typed some version of this hundreds of times:

docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml --profile dev exec app bash

compose-lazy is a CLI tool I built to cut that down. It provides shorthand commands for the most common docker compose workflows, and — more usefully — lets you pick compose files, profiles, and services interactively instead of remembering or typing them.

pipx install compose-lazy
# or
uv tool install compose-lazy

Three commands are added to your PATH: dcp, dcpu, and dcpe.

The basics: shorter commands

# docker compose up --build -d
dcpu -b -d

# docker compose exec app bash
dcpe app

# docker compose logs app -f
dcp l app -fo

# docker compose stop
dcp s

The aliases map closely to the originals — dcpu is always docker compose up, dcpe is always docker compose exec, and dcp is a general-purpose entry point for everything else (build, restart, ps, logs, stop, down, ...).

The useful part: interactive selection

This is where compose-lazy earns its name. Pass an option flag without a value and it reads your project and prompts you to choose.

Pick a compose file with `-f`

$ dcpu -f
☑ Found 2 compose files!
    1. docker-compose.yml
    2. docker-compose.prod.yml
Enter your choices (e.g., 1,3,4) or 'q' to quit: 2
▷ Executing `docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up`.

Multiple selections work too — enter 1,2 to use both files.

Pick a profile with `-pf`

$ dcp re -pf
☑ Found 2 profiles!
    1. dev
    2. prod
Enter your choices (e.g., 1,3,4) or 'q' to quit: 1
▷ Executing `docker compose --profile dev restart`.

Pick a service with `-s`

$ dcp l -s
☑ Found 3 services!
    1. app
    2. db
    3. frontend
Enter your choices (e.g., 1,3,4) or 'q' to quit: 1,2
▷ Executing `docker compose logs app db`.

For exec and run, the service prompt appears automatically when no service is given — no -s needed:

$ dcpe
☑ Found 3 services!
    1. app
    2. db
    3. frontend
Enter your choice or 'q' to quit: 1
▷ Executing `docker compose exec app bash`.

There's also a small quality-of-life detail: dcpe uv run pytest auto-detects that uv isn't a service name, falls back to interactive service selection, and carries uv run pytest forward as the inner command.

Workspace management: operate multiple repos at once

The workspace feature is for projects that span multiple repositories. Register repos into a named workspace and run commands across all of them with a single prompt.

Register a repo

$ dcp ws register
Please enter a new directory path: /path/to/repo
☑ Found 2 docker-compose files!
    1. docker-compose.yml
    2. docker-compose.prod.yml
Enter your choices (e.g., 1,3,4) or 'q' to quit: 1

☑ Found 1 registered workspace!
    1. myproject
Or '0' for a new entry.
Enter your choice or 'q' to quit: 0
Please enter a new workspace name: myproject

☑ Registered new path to myproject: /path/to/repo (docker-compose.yml)

You can register multiple repos into the same workspace. Each repo gets its own compose file pinned at registration time.

Bring up everything

$ dcp ws up
☑ Found 1 registered workspace!
    1. myproject
Enter your choice or 'q' to quit: 1

───── 📂 myproject ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
▷ Executing `docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d` in MYPROJECT.

All workspace subcommands:

Command	What it runs
`dcp ws register(reg)`	Register a repo interactively
`dcp ws delete(del)`	Remove a repo
`dcp ws list(li)`	Show all workspaces and their repos
`dcp ws up(u)`	`docker compose up -d` across all repos
`dcp ws build(b)`	`docker compose build` across all repos
`dcp ws restart(re)`	`docker compose restart` across all repos
`dcp ws stop(s)`	`docker compose stop` across all repos
`dcp ws down`	`docker compose down` across all repos

Config lives in ~/.config/compose-lazy/config.yml.

Requirements

Python 3.11+
Docker with Compose V2 (docker compose, not docker-compose)

🔗 PyPI | GitHub

I Published My First Python Package to PyPI — A CLI Tool for Docker Compose

HiroItozzz — Sun, 03 May 2026 14:49:01 +0000

I Published My First Python Package to PyPI — A CLI Tool for Docker Compose

I did it. I published my first package to PyPI.

It's called fast-dcp, and honestly, it started as a personal annoyance. I kept typing docker compose up --build and docker compose exec app bash dozens of times a day. My fingers got tired. So I built something about it.

What is fast-dcp?

fast-dcp is a CLI tool that provides shorthand aliases for common docker compose commands. Nothing revolutionary — just fewer keystrokes for the things you type constantly.

# Instead of this:
docker compose up --build

# Just type:
dcpu -b

# Instead of this:
docker compose exec app bash

# Just type:
dcpe app

Three commands cover the main workflows:

dcp — general-purpose wrapper with subcommands (up, build, exec, restart, ps, logs, stop, down)
dcpu — dedicated shorthand for docker compose up
dcpe — dedicated shorthand for docker compose exec

Some real examples

# docker compose up -d
dcp u -d

# docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up --build
dcpu -f docker-compose.prod.yml -b

# docker compose exec app bash
dcpe app

# docker compose exec app uv run pytest
dcpe app uv run pytest

# docker compose restart app
dcp r app

# docker compose logs app -f
dcp l app -F

How it's built

The implementation is pure Python — no external runtime dependencies.

The core is a DockerCmdProcessor class that builds up the docker command from parsed arguments and passes it to subprocess.run. It implements __call__, so it works naturally as a callable passed to argparse's set_defaults(func=...) — a pattern recommended in the argparse docs.

args = parser.parse_args()
code = args.func(args)
exit(code)

For the CLI definition, I wrote a small ArgDefiner wrapper around ArgumentParser to enable method chaining. It made the main() function much more declarative and readable — inspired by how Django's class-based views compose behavior through mixins.

(
    ArgDefiner(subparsers.add_parser("up", aliases=["u"], ...))
    .add_project_args()
    .add_file_args()
    .add_build_args()
    .add_detach_args()
    .add_container_name_subcmd(multiple=True)
    .set_defaults(func=Processor())
)

Testing was surprisingly clean. Unit tests cover ArgDefiner and DockerCmdProcessor independently, and integration tests use patch("sys.argv", ...) to simulate real CLI invocations end-to-end.

Install it

No external runtime dependencies — pure Python. Just install and use.

# Using pipx (recommended)
pipx install fast-dcp

# Or using uv
uv tool install fast-dcp

Not familiar with pipx or uv?

Both install CLI tools in isolated environments — no virtual environment activation needed, no conflicts with other packages. uv tool is the faster option if you already use uv.

macOS

brew install pipx
pipx ensurepath
pipx install fast-dcp

Windows

python -m pip install --user pipx
python -m pipx ensurepath
# Restart terminal, then:
pipx install fast-dcp

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)

pip install pipx
pipx ensurepath
pipx install fast-dcp

Requirements

Python 3.11+
Docker with Compose V2 (docker compose, not docker-compose)

Honest thoughts on publishing for the first time

This is a small tool. It wraps a handful of docker commands and saves a few keystrokes. But getting it to a point where someone else could pipx install fast-dcp and have it just work — that took more thought than I expected.

Packaging, pyproject.toml, flit, classifiers, editable installs, importlib.metadata... there's a lot of moving parts for something that feels like it should be simple. I learned a lot just by going through the process.

If you work with docker compose regularly, give it a try. And if something is broken or missing, feel free to open an issue.

🔗 PyPI | GitHub

DEV Community: HiroItozzz

Stop Typing Long Docker Compose Commands — compose-lazy Does It Interactively

The basics: shorter commands

The useful part: interactive selection

Pick a compose file with -f

Pick a profile with -pf

Pick a service with -s

Workspace management: operate multiple repos at once

Register a repo

Bring up everything

Requirements

I Published My First Python Package to PyPI — A CLI Tool for Docker Compose

I Published My First Python Package to PyPI — A CLI Tool for Docker Compose

What is fast-dcp?

Some real examples

How it's built

Install it

Not familiar with pipx or uv?

Requirements

Honest thoughts on publishing for the first time

Pick a compose file with `-f`

Pick a profile with `-pf`

Pick a service with `-s`