Composure

Deploy docker-compose files to multiple hosts via SSH with Composure

Composure is a simple CLI tool for deploying Docker Compose applications across multiple remote servers via SSH. No Kubernetes, no Swarm — just your familiar docker-compose.yml files deployed exactly where you want them.

Why Composure?

You have a docker-compose.yml file. You have multiple servers. You want your application running on all of them without the complexity of Kubernetes or the overhead of a full orchestration platform.

Composure keeps it simple:

• Uses your existing docker-compose.yml files
• Deploys over SSH—no agents, no daemons
• Supports server-specific configurations
• Parallel deployments for speed

Install

Homebrew (auto updates)

brew install sprisa/tap/composure

NPM

npm i -g @sprisa/composure
# Or run directly
npx @sprisa/composure

Golang Source

go install github.com/sprisa/composure@latest
# Or run directly
go run github.com/sprisa/composure@latest

Usage

Add a composure label to your docker-compose services. This described which SSH host to deploy the docker service to. This can be any DOCKER_HOST variable.

services:
  # Simple Hello World application
  hello-world:
    image: crccheck/hello-world
    ports:
      - "8081:8000"
    restart: unless-stopped
    labels:
      composure: ssh://gabe@jackfruit.local # <- Deploy to jackfruit server. Can be any IP or DNS name

  # Nginx reverse proxy
  nginx:
    image: nginx:alpine
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    restart: unless-stopped
    labels:
      composure: ssh://gabe@mango.local # <- Deploy to mango server. Can be any IP or DNS name

Now we can deploy with composure up. This accepts the same flags as docker compose up.

# Deploy in background
composure up -d 

# Destroy services
compose down

Options

Show Help

~ ❯ composure
Composure - Calm docker compose deployments

Usage: composure <command>

Commands:
  up       - Start services
  down     - Stop services
  restart  - Restart services
  help     - Show this help message

Recommendations

Use absolute paths for Volumes

Docker resolves relative paths like ./ or ~ based the machine you ran composure up from, not the host target machine. It's recommended to use explicit absolute paths for portability.

Assuming username is ubuntu

services:
  plex:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:latest
    ports:
      - 32400:32400
    # Use absolute paths instead of related paths
    volumes:
      - /home/ubuntu/plex/library:/config
      # The below is not as portable
      # - ~/plex/library:/config
    labels:
      composure: ssh://ubuntu@jackfruit.dvc.link

Not Yet Supported

• Cross host volumes
• Cross host docker networks
  • Recommended to use LAN network or an Overlay VPN
• Cross host service.depends_on