🚨 CRITICAL GUIDELINES Windows File Path Requirements
MANDATORY: Always Use Backslashes on Windows for File Paths
When using Edit or Write tools on Windows, you MUST use backslashes () in file paths, NOT forward slashes (/).
Examples:
❌ WRONG: D:/repos/project/file.tsx ✅ CORRECT: D:\repos\project\file.tsx
This applies to:
Edit tool file_path parameter Write tool file_path parameter All file operations on Windows systems Documentation Guidelines
NEVER create new documentation files unless explicitly requested by the user.
Priority: Update existing README.md files rather than creating new documentation Repository cleanliness: Keep repository root clean - only README.md unless user requests otherwise Style: Documentation should be concise, direct, and professional - avoid AI-generated tone User preference: Only create additional .md files when user specifically asks for documentation Docker Best Practices
This skill provides current Docker best practices across all aspects of container development, deployment, and operation.
Image Best Practices Base Image Selection
2025 Recommended Hierarchy:
Wolfi/Chainguard (cgr.dev/chainguard/) - Zero-CVE goal, SBOM included Alpine (alpine:3.19) - ~7MB, minimal attack surface Distroless (gcr.io/distroless/) - ~2MB, no shell Slim variants (node:20-slim) - ~70MB, balanced
Key rules:
Always specify exact version tags: node:20.11.0-alpine3.19 Never use latest (unpredictable, breaks reproducibility) Use official images from trusted registries Match base image to actual needs Dockerfile Structure
Optimal layer ordering (least to most frequently changing):
- Base image and system dependencies
- Application dependencies (package.json, requirements.txt, etc.)
- Application code
- Configuration and metadata
Rationale: Docker caches layers. If code changes but dependencies don't, cached dependency layers are reused, speeding up builds.
Example:
FROM python:3.12-slim
1. System packages (rarely change)
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \ gcc \ && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
2. Dependencies (change occasionally)
COPY requirements.txt . RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
3. Application code (changes frequently)
COPY . /app WORKDIR /app
CMD ["python", "app.py"]
Multi-Stage Builds
Use multi-stage builds to separate build dependencies from runtime:
Build stage
FROM node:20-alpine AS builder WORKDIR /app COPY package*.json ./ RUN npm ci COPY . . RUN npm run build
Production stage
FROM node:20-alpine AS runtime WORKDIR /app
Only copy what's needed for runtime
COPY --from=builder /app/dist ./dist COPY --from=builder /app/node_modules ./node_modules USER node CMD ["node", "dist/server.js"]
Benefits:
Smaller final images (no build tools) Better security (fewer attack vectors) Faster deployment (smaller upload/download) Layer Optimization
Combine commands to reduce layers and image size:
Bad - 3 layers, cleanup doesn't reduce size
RUN apt-get update RUN apt-get install -y curl RUN rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
Good - 1 layer, cleanup effective
RUN apt-get update && \ apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends curl && \ rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
.dockerignore
Always create .dockerignore to exclude unnecessary files:
Version control
.git .gitignore
Dependencies
node_modules pycache *.pyc
IDE
.vscode .idea
OS
.DS_Store Thumbs.db
Logs
*.log logs/
Testing
coverage/ .nyc_output *.test.js
Documentation
README.md docs/
Environment
.env .env.local *.local
Container Runtime Best Practices Security docker run \ # Run as non-root --user 1000:1000 \ # Drop all capabilities, add only needed ones --cap-drop=ALL \ --cap-add=NET_BIND_SERVICE \ # Read-only filesystem --read-only \ # Temporary writable filesystems --tmpfs /tmp:noexec,nosuid \ # No new privileges --security-opt="no-new-privileges:true" \ # Resource limits --memory="512m" \ --cpus="1.0" \ my-image
Resource Management
Always set resource limits in production:
docker-compose.yml
services: app: deploy: resources: limits: cpus: '2.0' memory: 1G reservations: cpus: '1.0' memory: 512M
Health Checks
Implement health checks for all long-running containers:
HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=3s --retries=3 --start-period=40s \ CMD curl -f http://localhost:3000/health || exit 1
Or in compose:
services: app: healthcheck: test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost/health"] interval: 30s timeout: 3s retries: 3 start_period: 40s
Logging
Configure proper logging to prevent disk fill-up:
services: app: logging: driver: "json-file" options: max-size: "10m" max-file: "3"
Or system-wide in /etc/docker/daemon.json:
{ "log-driver": "json-file", "log-opts": { "max-size": "10m", "max-file": "3" } }
Restart Policies services: app: # For development restart: "no"
# For production
restart: unless-stopped
# Or with fine-grained control (Swarm mode)
deploy:
restart_policy:
condition: on-failure
delay: 5s
max_attempts: 3
window: 120s
Docker Compose Best Practices File Structure
No version field needed (Compose v2.40.3+)
services: # Service definitions web: # ... api: # ... database: # ...
networks: # Custom networks (preferred) frontend: backend: internal: true
volumes: # Named volumes (preferred for persistence) db-data: app-data:
configs: # Configuration files (Swarm mode) app-config: file: ./config/app.conf
secrets: # Secrets (Swarm mode) db-password: file: ./secrets/db_pass.txt
Network Isolation networks: frontend: driver: bridge backend: driver: bridge internal: true # No external access
services: web: networks: - frontend
api: networks: - frontend - backend
database: networks: - backend # Not accessible from frontend
Environment Variables services: app: # Load from file (preferred for non-secrets) env_file: - .env
# Inline for service-specific vars
environment:
- NODE_ENV=production
- LOG_LEVEL=info
# For Swarm mode secrets
secrets:
- db_password
Important:
Add .env to .gitignore Provide .env.example as template Never commit secrets to version control Dependency Management services: api: depends_on: database: condition: service_healthy # Wait for health check redis: condition: service_started # Just wait for start
Production Best Practices Image Tagging Strategy
Use semantic versioning
my-app:1.2.3 my-app:1.2 my-app:1 my-app:latest
Include git commit for traceability
my-app:1.2.3-abc123f
Environment tags
my-app:1.2.3-production my-app:1.2.3-staging
Secrets Management
Never do this:
BAD - secret in layer history
ENV API_KEY=secret123 RUN echo "password" > /app/config
Do this:
Use Docker secrets (Swarm) or external secret management
docker secret create db_password ./password.txt
Or mount secrets at runtime
docker run -v /secure/secrets:/run/secrets:ro my-app
Or use environment files (not in image)
docker run --env-file /secure/.env my-app
Monitoring & Observability services: app: # Health checks healthcheck: test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost/health"] interval: 30s
# Labels for monitoring tools
labels:
- "prometheus.io/scrape=true"
- "prometheus.io/port=9090"
- "com.company.team=backend"
- "com.company.version=1.2.3"
# Logging
logging:
driver: "json-file"
options:
max-size: "10m"
max-file: "3"
Backup Strategy
Backup named volume
docker run --rm \ -v VOLUME_NAME:/data \ -v $(pwd):/backup \ alpine tar czf /backup/backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /data .
Restore volume
docker run --rm \ -v VOLUME_NAME:/data \ -v $(pwd):/backup \ alpine tar xzf /backup/backup.tar.gz -C /data
Update Strategy services: app: # For Swarm mode - rolling updates deploy: replicas: 3 update_config: parallelism: 1 # Update 1 at a time delay: 10s # Wait 10s between updates failure_action: rollback monitor: 60s rollback_config: parallelism: 1 delay: 5s
Platform-Specific Best Practices Linux Use user namespace remapping for added security Leverage native performance advantages Use Alpine for smallest images Configure SELinux/AppArmor profiles Use systemd for Docker daemon management // /etc/docker/daemon.json { "userns-remap": "default", "log-driver": "json-file", "log-opts": { "max-size": "10m", "max-file": "3" }, "storage-driver": "overlay2", "live-restore": true }
macOS Allocate sufficient resources in Docker Desktop Use :delegated or :cached for bind mounts Consider multi-platform builds for ARM (M1/M2) Limit file sharing to necessary directories
Better volume performance on macOS
volumes: - ./src:/app/src:delegated # Host writes are delayed - ./build:/app/build:cached # Container writes are cached
Windows Choose container type: Windows or Linux Use forward slashes in paths Ensure drives are shared in Docker Desktop Be aware of line ending differences (CRLF vs LF) Consider WSL2 backend for better performance
Windows-compatible paths
volumes: - C:/Users/name/app:/app # Forward slashes work # or - C:\Users\name\app:/app # Backslashes need escaping in YAML
Performance Best Practices Build Performance
Use BuildKit (faster, better caching)
export DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1
Use cache mounts
RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/pip \ pip install -r requirements.txt
Use bind mounts for dependencies
RUN --mount=type=bind,source=package.json,target=package.json \ --mount=type=bind,source=package-lock.json,target=package-lock.json \ --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.npm \ npm ci
Image Size Use multi-stage builds Choose minimal base images Clean up in the same layer Use .dockerignore Remove build dependencies
Install and cleanup in one layer
RUN apt-get update && \ apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \ package1 \ package2 && \ apt-get clean && \ rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
Runtime Performance
Use exec form (no shell overhead)
CMD ["node", "server.js"] # Good
vs
CMD node server.js # Bad - spawns shell
Optimize signals
STOPSIGNAL SIGTERM
Run as non-root (slightly faster, much more secure)
USER appuser
Security Best Practices Summary
Image Security:
Use official, minimal base images Scan for vulnerabilities (Docker Scout, Trivy) Don't include secrets in layers Run as non-root user Keep images updated
Runtime Security:
Drop capabilities Use read-only filesystem Set resource limits Enable security options Isolate networks Use secrets management
Compliance:
Follow CIS Docker Benchmark Implement container scanning in CI/CD Use signed images (Docker Content Trust) Maintain audit logs Regular security reviews Common Anti-Patterns to Avoid
❌ Don't:
Run as root Use --privileged Mount Docker socket Use latest tag Hardcode secrets Skip health checks Ignore resource limits Use huge base images Skip vulnerability scanning Expose unnecessary ports Use inefficient layer caching Commit secrets to Git
✅ Do:
Run as non-root Use minimal capabilities Isolate containers Tag with versions Use secrets management Implement health checks Set resource limits Use minimal images Scan regularly Apply least privilege Optimize build cache Use .env.example templates Checklist for Production-Ready Images Based on official, versioned, minimal image Multi-stage build (if applicable) Runs as non-root user No secrets in layers .dockerignore configured Vulnerability scan passed Health check implemented Proper labeling (version, description, etc.) Efficient layer caching Resource limits defined Logging configured Signals handled correctly Security options set Documentation complete Tested on target platform(s)
This skill represents current Docker best practices. Always verify against official documentation for the latest recommendations, as Docker evolves continuously.