Docker Compose for Full-Stack Development: Next.js, Postgres, Redis, and Production Builds

Docker Compose is underused. Most tutorials show you how to run a database alongside your app — but Compose can handle your entire development workflow: hot reload, environment parity, secrets management, and multi-service orchestration. The Development Stack A complete Next.js + Postgres + Redis development environment: # docker-compose.yml version: '3.8' services: app: build: context: . dockerfile: Dockerfile.dev ports: - '3000:3000' volumes: - .:/app - /app/node_modules # exclude node_modules from mount environment: - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:postgres@db:5432/myapp - REDIS_URL=redis://cache:6379 depends_on: db: condition: service_healthy cache: condition: service_started db: image: postgres:15-alpine environment: POSTGRES_DB: myapp POSTGRES_USER: postgres POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres volumes: - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data healthcheck: test: ['CMD-SHELL', 'pg_isready -U postgres'] interval: 5s timeout: 5s retries: 5 cache: image: redis:7-alpine volumes: - redis_da