Docker for Development: How to Set Up Reproducible Environments That Don't Suck

Every developer has lost hours to "works on my machine" problems. Different Node versions, missing system dependencies, conflicting database versions. Docker solves this — but only if your setup doesn't make development painfully slow.

The Development Docker Compose

Our standard development stack uses Docker Compose with these principles:

• App code runs on host, services run in Docker — Your editor, TypeScript LSP, and hot reload work natively. Postgres, Redis, and other services run in containers.
• Volume mounts for data persistence — Database data survives container restarts
• Environment variable management — .env.example checked in, .env.local gitignored

Service Configuration

A typical web app needs:

services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
      - ./scripts/init.sql:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/init.sql
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: app_dev
      POSTGRES_USER: dev
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: dev
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"

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

  mailhog:
    image: mailhog/mailhog
    ports:
      - "8025:8025"  # Web UI
      - "1025:1025"  # SMTP

Multi-Stage Production Builds

Development and production images should share a base but differ in their final stage. Use multi-stage builds:

• Stage 1 (deps): Install all dependencies including devDependencies
• Stage 2 (build): Compile TypeScript, build Next.js
• Stage 3 (production): Copy only production artifacts, install only production deps. Final image is 80% smaller.

Developer Experience Tips

• Add a Makefile with commands like make dev, make test, make seed
• Use docker compose watch (Compose v2.22+) for automatic sync and rebuild
• Health checks on every service so depends_on actually waits for readiness
• Include a scripts/setup.sh that gets a new developer from zero to running in one command

Want a Docker setup that your entire team will actually enjoy using? We build developer-friendly infrastructure.