Set up Docker For NestJs

Let's add Docker support to the NestJS To-Do App with MongoDB. This includes a Dockerfile, a docker-compose.yml file, and necessary environment variables.

1. Create a .dockerignore File

This file prevents unnecessary files from being copied to the Docker image.

Create .dockerignore in the root directory:

node_modules dist .git .env Dockerfile 

2. Create a Dockerfile

This file defines the steps to build the NestJS application inside a Docker container.

Create a Dockerfile in the root directory:

# Use Node.js Alpine for a smaller image FROM node:20-alpine # Set working directory WORKDIR /TODO-APP # Copy package.json and yarn.lock before installing dependencies COPY package.json yarn.lock ./ # Install dependencies with Yarn RUN yarn install --frozen-lockfile # Copy all source files COPY . . # Expose port 3000 EXPOSE 3000 # Start the application CMD ["yarn", "start:dev"] 

3. Create docker-compose.yml

This file defines how our services (NestJS API + MongoDB) run together.

Create docker-compose.yml in the root directory:

version: '3.8' services: app: build: . container_name: nest-todo-app restart: always env_file: - .env ports: - '3000:3000' volumes: - .:/TODO-APP command: yarn start:dev 

4. Build and Run the Docker Containers

Run the following command to start the app and MongoDB:

docker-compose up --build 

5. Verify Everything Works

• Open http://localhost:3000/todos to check the API.
• Use Postman or cURL to test the endpoints.

6. Stop the Containers

To stop the containers, run:

docker-compose down 

7. Check If the App is Running

Run:

docker ps 

You should see:

CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND PORTS NAMES xxxxxxxxxxx nest-todo-app "yarn start:dev" 0.0.0.0:3000->3000/tcp nest-todo-app 

If it fails, check logs with:

docker logs -f nest-todo-app 

My Git: https://github.com/Taki089Linux/nestj-todo-app/tree/setup-docker