This guide explains how to run the full application stack locally or in a production-like environment using Docker Compose.

Prerequisites

Make sure the following tools are installed on your system before proceeding:

• Docker v20+
• Docker Compose v2.20+

To check versions:

docker --version
docker compose version

Local Development (docker-compose-dev.yaml)

Use this setup to run the application stack locally with development defaults. It includes:

• PostgreSQL with hardcoded dev credentials
• Spring Boot backend(SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=docker)
• React frontend (built via Vite, served via Nginx)

Start the stack

docker-compose -f docker-compose-dev.yaml up --build

This command will:

1. Pull the PostgreSQL image and initialize the database.
2. Build and run the backend service.
3. Build the frontend app and serve it via Nginx.

Once started: