How do I spin up a full test environment with docker-compose?

Question

Need app + Postgres + Selenium Grid for E2E on CI. What does a clean compose look like?

Priya Gopal · Accepted Answer

Docker Compose gives every test run the same disposable stack: app, database, and any stubs, on an isolated network.

```yaml
services:
  db:
    image: postgres:16
    environment: { POSTGRES_PASSWORD: test }
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U postgres"]
      interval: 3s
      retries: 20
  app:
    build: .
    depends_on:
      db: { condition: service_healthy }
    ports: ["8080:8080"]
  tests:
    image: mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.50.0-jammy
    depends_on: [app]
    environment: { BASE_URL: "http://app:8080" }
    command: npx playwright test
```

The two details that stop flakes: use real `healthcheck` + `depends_on: condition: service_healthy` instead of `sleep 10`, and address services by their compose name (`http://app:8080`) rather than localhost. Run CI with `docker compose up --abort-on-container-exit --exit-code-from tests`, then `docker compose down -v` so no volume state leaks into the next run.

services:
  db:
    image: postgres:16
    environment: { POSTGRES_PASSWORD: test }
    healthcheck:
      test: ['CMD-SHELL', 'pg_isready -U postgres']
      interval: 5s

app:
    build: .
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgres://postgres:test@db:5432/postgres
    depends_on:
      db: { condition: service_healthy }
    ports: ['3000:3000']

selenium:
    image: selenium/standalone-chrome:4.20
    shm_size: 2gb
    ports: ['4444:4444']

How do I spin up a full test environment with docker-compose?

1 answer