---
title: Using profiles with Compose
linkTitle: Use service profiles
weight: 20
description: How to use profiles with Docker Compose
keywords: cli, compose, profile, profiles reference
aliases:
- /compose/profiles/
---

{{% include "compose/profiles.md" %}}

## Assigning profiles to services

Services are associated with profiles through the
[`profiles` attribute](/reference/compose-file/services.md#profiles) which takes an
array of profile names:

```yaml
services:
  frontend:
    image: frontend
    profiles: [frontend]

  phpmyadmin:
    image: phpmyadmin
    depends_on: [db]
    profiles: [debug]

  backend:
    image: backend

  db:
    image: mysql
```

Here the services `frontend` and `phpmyadmin` are assigned to the profiles
`frontend` and `debug` respectively and as such are only started when their
respective profiles are enabled.

Services without a `profiles` attribute are always enabled. In this
case running `docker compose up` would only start `backend` and `db`.

Valid profiles names follow the regex format of `[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9_.-]+`.

> [!TIP]
>
> The core services of your application shouldn't be assigned `profiles` so
> they are always enabled and automatically started.

## Start specific profiles

To start a specific profile supply the `--profile` [command-line option](/reference/cli/docker/compose.md) or
use the [`COMPOSE_PROFILES` environment variable](environment-variables/envvars.md#compose_profiles):

```console
$ docker compose --profile debug up
```
```console
$ COMPOSE_PROFILES=debug docker compose up
```

Both commands start the services with the `debug` profile enabled.
In the previous `compose.yaml` file, this starts the services
`db`, `backend` and `phpmyadmin`.

### Start multiple profiles

You can also enable
multiple profiles, e.g. with `docker compose --profile frontend --profile debug up`
the profiles `frontend` and `debug` will be enabled.

Multiple profiles can be specified by passing multiple `--profile` flags or
a comma-separated list for the `COMPOSE_PROFILES` environment variable:

```console
$ docker compose --profile frontend --profile debug up
```

```console
$ COMPOSE_PROFILES=frontend,debug docker compose up
```

If you want to enable all profiles at the same time, you can run `docker compose --profile "*"`.

## Auto-starting profiles and dependency resolution

When a service with assigned `profiles` is explicitly targeted on the command
line its profiles are started automatically so you don't need to start them
manually. This can be used for one-off services and debugging tools.
As an example consider the following configuration:

```yaml
services:
  backend:
    image: backend

  db:
    image: mysql

  db-migrations:
    image: backend
    command: myapp migrate
    depends_on:
      - db