Local Docker Infrastructure

Shared Docker services used across all local Laravel projects.

Services

Service	Directory	Purpose
nginx-proxy	proxy/	SSL termination and routing for all local .test domains
MySQL	mysql/	Shared MySQL 8.4 server for all projects
Redis	redis/	Shared Redis cache server for all projects
Mailpit	mailpit/	Shared mail capture for all projects — dashboard at http://localhost:8025

Setup (new machine)

Start all services once from the ~/docker/ directory — they restart automatically after that.

cd ~/docker && docker compose up -d

Important: always use docker compose down && docker compose up -d (not just up -d) when restarting services. If a container is recreated without down first — e.g. after resolving a port conflict — it may not rejoin its Docker network, making it unreachable from project containers and causing slow or broken app behaviour.

Then follow NEW_PROJECT.md in any project repo to wire up a new app.

SSL Certificates

Certs are not stored in this repo — generate them per machine:

# Install mkcert CA (WSL + Windows browsers)
mkcert -install
powershell.exe -Command "Start-Process powershell -Verb RunAs -ArgumentList 'cd $(wslpath -w $(mkcert -CAROOT)); certutil -addstore -f Root rootCA.pem'"

Per-project certs are generated during project setup (see NEW_PROJECT.md).

Database

See mysql/README.md for connection details and per-project database management.

Troubleshooting

Apps are slow or failing to connect to Redis/MySQL/Mailpit

Check that each shared container is actually attached to its network:

docker network inspect redis-shared --format '{{range .Containers}}{{.Name}} {{end}}'
docker network inspect mailpit-shared --format '{{range .Containers}}{{.Name}} {{end}}'
docker network inspect mysql-shared --format '{{range .Containers}}{{.Name}} {{end}}'

Each line should include both the shared service container (redis, mailpit, mysql) and the project app containers. If a service is missing, recreate it:

cd ~/docker && docker compose down && docker compose up -d

Warning: never run docker compose down -v — the -v flag removes volumes and will permanently delete all MySQL data stored in mysql/data/.