Docker¶

The Tech Strategy Tool uses Docker Compose to run PostgreSQL for development. The .NET application runs directly on the host — there is no Dockerfile or app container. This page covers the Docker setup, database management, and common operations.

Docker Compose Configuration¶

The development infrastructure is defined in docker/docker-compose.yml. It contains a single service:

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up -d

This starts a PostgreSQL 17 container with:

Setting	Value
Image	`postgres:17`
Port	`5432:5432` (host:container)
Database	`techstrat`
Username	`techstrat`
Password	`techstrat_dev`
Volume	`techstrat-pgdata` mounted at `/var/lib/postgresql/data`
Healthcheck	`pg_isready -U techstrat -d techstrat` every 10s (timeout 5s, 5 retries)

No other services are defined — no Redis, no message broker, no app container.

Starting the Database¶

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up -d

The -d flag runs the container in detached mode (background). The database is ready when the healthcheck passes.

To check the status:

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml ps

Stopping the Database¶

Stop (preserve data)¶

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml down

This stops and removes the container but preserves the techstrat-pgdata volume. Restarting with up -d will resume with existing data.

Stop and reset data¶

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml down -v
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up -d

The -v flag removes volumes, destroying all data. The next application startup will auto-apply EF Core migrations to create the schema.

Data loss

Using down -v permanently deletes all events, checkpoints, users, and sessions. This is useful for development resets but should never be done in a production environment.

Database Schema¶

EF Core migrations are the sole source of truth for the database schema. In Development mode, migrations are auto-applied on application startup via db.Database.MigrateAsync(). A fresh Docker container starts with an empty database — the application creates all tables and indexes automatically on first run.

See Migrations for schema management details.

Connecting to the Database¶

To connect to the development database directly:

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml exec postgres psql -U techstrat -d techstrat

Or using any PostgreSQL client with the connection details in the table above.

Viewing Logs¶

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml logs -f postgres

Integration Tests¶

Integration tests (TechStrat.Api.Tests and TechStrat.Infrastructure.Tests) use Testcontainers to spin up isolated PostgreSQL instances automatically. They do not use the development Docker Compose database.

This means:

You can run integration tests while the dev database is running
Tests are isolated and do not affect dev data
Docker must be running for integration tests to work

Troubleshooting¶

Port 5432 already in use¶

If another PostgreSQL instance is running on port 5432:

# Check what's using the port
netstat -ano | findstr :5432    # Windows
lsof -i :5432                  # macOS/Linux

Either stop the conflicting service or modify the port mapping in docker-compose.yml.

Container fails to start¶

Check the logs for errors:

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml logs postgres

Common issues:

Port conflict — another service on port 5432
Disk space — Docker ran out of disk space
Corrupted volume — reset with down -v and up -d