Docker Run to Docker Compose Converter

Long docker run commands with multiple flags are hard to read, maintain, and share with your team. Docker Compose provides a declarative YAML format that is version-controlled, self-documenting, and supports multi-container orchestration. This tool parses any docker run command and generates an equivalent docker-compose.yml file instantly.

Docker Run Command

Paste your docker run command above. Supports multi-line commands with backslash continuations.

Supported Docker Run Flags

-p / --publish→ports

-v / --volume→volumes

-e / --env→environment

--name→container_name

-d→(implied in compose)

--restart→restart

--network→networks

-w / --workdir→working_dir

--entrypoint→entrypoint

-h / --hostname→hostname

-u / --user→user

-l / --label→labels

-m / --memory→mem_limit

--cpus→cpus

--dns→dns

--add-host→extra_hosts

--privileged→privileged

--read-only→read_only

--cap-add→cap_add

--cap-drop→cap_drop

Tips

The -d (detach) flag is implicit in Docker Compose and is omitted from output.
Combined short flags like -dp 8080:80 are supported.
Multi-line commands with \ line continuations are automatically joined.
Networks are declared as external by default. Adjust if you want Compose to create them.

How to Use Docker Run to Compose

Paste your docker run command into the input field, including all flags and arguments. The tool parses every option and generates a complete docker-compose.yml file. Supported flags include -p/--publish (ports), -v/--volume (volumes), -e/--env (environment variables), --name (service name), -d/--detach, --restart, --network, --memory, --cpus, -w/--workdir, --entrypoint, --user, and many more. Multi-line commands using backslash continuation are supported.

Common Use Cases

Docker Run to Compose conversion is invaluable for DevOps engineers migrating from ad-hoc docker run scripts to maintainable docker-compose.yml configurations, teams standardizing their development environments with compose files that everyone can docker-compose up, converting production deployment commands to Infrastructure as Code, documenting complex container setups that were previously tribal knowledge in shell scripts, onboarding new developers who need a single command to start all services, and transitioning from single-container deployments to multi-container architectures.

Technical Details

The parser tokenizes the docker run command using shell argument parsing rules, handling quoted strings, escaped characters, and multi-line continuations. Each flag is mapped to its docker-compose.yml equivalent: -p 8080:80 becomes ports: ['8080:80'], -v /host:/container becomes volumes: ['/host:/container'], -e KEY=VALUE becomes environment: [KEY=VALUE]. The output uses docker-compose version 3.8 syntax by default. Named volumes and networks are extracted into top-level sections. The tool handles edge cases like --env-file, --mount syntax (type=bind,source=...,target=...), and --label flags.

Frequently Asked Questions

Docker Compose provides a declarative YAML configuration that is version-controlled, easier to read, supports multi-container setups, and can be started with a single 'docker compose up' command. It eliminates long, error-prone docker run commands and makes container orchestration reproducible across environments.

The converter supports all common flags including -p (ports), -v (volumes), -e (environment), --name, --restart, --network, --memory, --cpus, -w (workdir), --entrypoint, --user, --env-file, --label, --cap-add, --cap-drop, --privileged, --shm-size, and many more.

Currently the tool converts one docker run command at a time into a single-service docker-compose.yml. For multi-container setups, convert each command separately and merge the services sections manually into one Compose file.