Day 2 – Dockerfiles and Compose Stack

Today's Focus

Write Dockerfiles for all services and a Docker Compose file that brings the full local stack up in one command.

Tasks

• Write production-quality Dockerfiles for each service: use multi-stage builds, non-root users, pinned base image digests, .dockerignore files, and HEALTHCHECK instructions. Apply every best practice from Week 7.
• Write docker-compose.yml for the full stack: all services, a PostgreSQL database, a Redis instance, and any other dependencies. Configure health checks with condition: service_healthy so services start in the correct order.
• Add a docker-compose.override.yml for development: bind-mount source code for hot-reload in each service, expose extra ports for debuggers, and set DEBUG=true environment variables.
• Write a Makefile at the repo root with targets: make up (start all services), make down (stop and remove), make build (build all images), make logs (tail all logs), make test (run all service tests inside containers using docker compose run).
• Verify the full stack from a cold start: run make build && make up with no cached layers. Confirm every service reaches healthy status and you can call the API via curl http://localhost:8080/health.
• Document the local development workflow in README.md: what make up does, how to add a new service, how to tail a specific service's logs, and how to run a one-off command inside a container.

Reading / Reference

• Docker Compose docs: Startup order.
• Docker Compose: Override files.
• Makefile tutorial — a practical reference for Makefile syntax.