docker

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Load when editing Dockerfile, docker-compose*.yml, or managing containers. Provides container management patterns for development and production environments.

⭐0stars🔀0forks📁View on GitHub🕐Updated Jan 11, 2026
[Cloud Infrastructure]

When & Why to Use This Skill

This Claude skill provides a comprehensive suite of container management patterns and best practices for Docker and Docker Compose. It streamlines the development-to-production pipeline by automating environment-specific configurations, optimizing build workflows, and providing robust troubleshooting strategies for common containerization issues like stale code, cache conflicts, and port management.

Use Cases

  • Environment-Specific Orchestration: Seamlessly manage different configurations for local development (dev.yml), testing, and production environments to ensure consistency and security.
  • Efficient Debugging and Logging: Rapidly diagnose container failures by streaming service logs, checking health statuses, and executing commands directly within running containers.
  • Optimized Build Management: Resolve persistent synchronization issues using advanced rebuild patterns like --force-recreate and --no-cache to ensure code changes are accurately reflected.
  • Container Lifecycle Automation: Simplify complex multi-container operations, including targeted service restarts, volume mount verification, and clean environment resets.
namedocker
descriptionLoad when editing Dockerfile, docker-compose*.yml, or managing containers. Provides container management patterns for development and production environments.

Docker

Merged Skills

  • container-management: Start, stop, rebuild, logs
  • compose-files: Multi-container orchestration, environment separation

⚠️ Critical Gotchas

Category Pattern Solution
Stale code restart keeps old code Use up -d --build instead
Cache issues Changes not appearing Add --force-recreate flag
Wrong compose Using prod for dev Always use docker-compose.dev.yml for local
Network sockets Broadcast not working Add SO_BROADCAST socket option
Volume mounts Source changes not reflecting Check volume paths in compose file
Port conflicts Container won't start Check ports 3000, 8000, 5432 not in use

Rules

Rule Pattern
Dev compose Always use docker-compose.dev.yml for local development
Rebuild after code up -d --build not restart
Force recreate Add --force-recreate when cache issues
Check logs first docker compose logs -f {service} before debugging
Clean rebuilds --no-cache for dependency changes

Avoid

❌ Bad ✅ Good
docker compose restart docker compose up -d --build
Production compose for dev docker-compose.dev.yml
Debugging without logs docker compose logs -f backend
Ignoring exit codes Check docker compose ps for health

Patterns

# Pattern 1: Development startup (DEFAULT)
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.dev.yml up -d

# Pattern 2: Rebuild single service
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.dev.yml up -d --build backend

# Pattern 3: Force full recreate (cache issues)
docker compose up -d --build --force-recreate backend

# Pattern 4: Clean rebuild (dependency changes)
docker compose build --no-cache backend
docker compose up -d

# Pattern 5: Debug container
docker compose logs -f backend --tail 100
docker exec -it nop-backend bash

Environment Detection

Situation Compose File
Local development docker/docker-compose.dev.yml
Production deploy docker-compose.yml
Testing docker/docker-compose.test.yml
Debugging docker/docker-compose.debug.yml

Commands

Task Command
Start dev docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.dev.yml up -d
Rebuild service docker compose up -d --build backend
View logs docker compose logs -f backend
Enter container docker exec -it nop-backend bash
Stop all docker compose down
Full reset docker compose down && docker compose up -d --build
Check status docker compose ps