Docker is pleased to announce that we have created a new open community to develop the Compose Specification. This new community will be run with open governance with input from all interested parties allowing us together to create a new standard for defining multi-container apps that can be run from the desktop to the cloud.



Docker is working with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and others in the open source community to extend the Compose Specification to more flexibly support cloud-native platforms like Kubernetes and Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) in addition to the existing Compose platforms. Opening the specification will allow innovation to flourish and deliver more choices to developers, accelerating how development teams build and ship applications.



Currently used by millions of developers and with over 650,000 Compose files on GitHub, Compose has been widely embraced by developers because it is a simple cloud and platform-agnostic way of defining multi-container based applications. Compose dramatically simplifies the code to cloud process and toolchain for developers by allowing them to define a complex stack in a single file and run it with a single command. This eliminates the need to build and start every container manually, saving development teams valuable time.



Previously Compose did not have a published specification, and was tied to the implementation, and to specifics of the platforms it shipped on. Open governance will benefit the wider community of new and existing users with transparency and the ability to have input into the future direction of the specification and Compose based tools. With greater community support and engagement, Docker intends to submit the Compose Specification to an open source foundation to further enhance the level playing field and openness.



If you want to get started using Docker Compose today to try the existing features you can download Docker Desktop with Docker Compose here. Or if you are looking for some examples or ideas to get started with Compose why not check out the Awesome Compose Repo.

The draft specification is available at compose-spec.io; we are looking for contributors to the Compose Specification along with people who are interested in building tools around the specification. Docker will continue to contribute to the specification and be an active member of the community around it going forward.