Docker Compose Validation Stacks#

Docker Compose validates multi-service architectures without Kubernetes overhead. It answers the question: do these services actually work together? Containers start, connect, and communicate – or they fail, giving you fast feedback before you push to a cluster.

This article provides complete Compose stacks for four common validation scenarios. Each includes the full docker-compose.yml, health check scripts, and teardown procedures. The pattern for using them is always the same: clone the template, customize for your services, bring it up, validate, capture results, bring it down.

Planning and Executing Database Migrations#

Database migrations are the highest-risk routine operations most teams perform. A bad migration can cause downtime, data loss, or application errors that cascade across every service that touches the affected tables. This operational sequence walks through the assessment, planning, execution, and rollback of database migrations from simple column additions to full platform changes.

Phase 1 – Assessment#

Step 1: Classify the Migration#

Every migration falls into one of three categories, each with a different risk profile:

Validation Playbook Format#

A validation playbook is a structured procedure that tells an agent exactly how to validate a specific type of infrastructure change. The key problem it solves: the same validation (for example, “verify this Helm chart works”) requires different commands depending on whether the agent has access to kind, minikube, a cloud cluster, or nothing but a linter. A playbook encodes all path variants in one document so the agent picks the right commands for its environment.