🚀 Modern Docker Stack for Local Development

DockerKit is a modern development environment enabling you to run, configure, and manage multiple Laravel/Symfony (and more) projects in Docker with minimal effort and maximum automation.

Features

Zero-Configuration Discovery

• Automatic project scanning for .localhost projects in parent directory
• Framework detection based on project structure
• SSL certificate generation using mkcert for secure HTTPS development
• Nginx configuration auto-generated from project-specific templates

Service Auto-Configuration

• Multi-project .env scanning across all .localhost directories
• Database auto-creation for PostgreSQL and MySQL with user management
• Redis ACL setup with multi-password configuration per project
• RabbitMQ management with user, virtual host, and permission setup
• MinIO bucket creation with user management and policy configuration

Developer Productivity Tools

• Interactive project creation for Laravel and Symfony frameworks
• Database backup/restore with step-by-step workflow and compression support
• Enhanced workspace with modern terminal, fuzzy search, and smart autocompletion
• Docker network aliases for seamless microservice communication

Table of Contents

1. Quick Start
2. Configuration
3. Usage
4. Web Consoles
5. Development Tools

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose for container orchestration
• Homebrew (macOS only) - required for automatic mkcert installation

Installation

# 1. Clone repository to your projects directory
cd /path/to/your/projects
git clone https://github.com/abordage/dockerkit.git

# 2. Navigate to DockerKit directory
cd dockerkit

# 3. Run automatic environment setup
make setup

Automatic Tool Installation

DockerKit automatically installs required development tools during setup:

• mkcert - for trusted SSL certificates (installed automatically)
  • On macOS: via Homebrew (brew install mkcert)
  • On Linux/WSL2: from GitHub releases
  • Certificate Authority is configured automatically
• dk command - for quick workspace access from any project directory

No manual installation required - everything is handled by make setup.

Project Structure

DockerKit automatically discovers projects in the parent directory:

/your/projects/directory/
├── dockerkit/             # This repository  
├── myapp.localhost/       # Laravel project
│   ├── artisan            #   ← Laravel indicator
│   ├── composer.json      #   ← Contains "laravel/framework"
│   └── public/index.php   #   ← Standard Laravel structure
├── api.localhost/         # Symfony project  
│   ├── bin/console        #   ← Symfony indicator
│   ├── composer.json      #   ← Contains "symfony/framework-bundle"
│   └── public/index.php   #   ← Standard Symfony structure
├── blog.localhost/        # WordPress project
│   ├── wp-config.php      #   ← WordPress indicator
│   └── wp-content/        #   ← WordPress structure
├── legacy.localhost/      # PHP project
│   └── index.php          #   ← Basic PHP project
├── docs/                  # Ignored: no .localhost suffix
└── backup-files/          # Ignored: no .localhost suffix

Modern browsers automatically resolve .localhost domains to 127.0.0.1 according to RFC standards:

• RFC 2606 — Reserved Top Level DNS Names: Defines .localhost as a reserved domain
• RFC 6761 — Special-Use Top Level Domains: .localhost should resolve to loopback addresses
• RFC 6762 — Multicast DNS: Confirms .localhost special handling in modern systems

This eliminates the need for hosts file modifications or DNS configuration.

Create New Project

# Create new project interactively
make project

# Choose project type (Laravel/Symfony)
# Enter project name (e.g., myapp.localhost)
# Project will be available at https://myapp.localhost

Deploy Existing Projects

# 1. Clone your existing projects to the parent directory
cd /path/to/your/projects  # Same level as dockerkit/
git clone https://github.com/yourorg/myapp.git myapp.localhost
git clone https://github.com/yourorg/api.git api.localhost

# 2. Reconfigure DockerKit to detect new projects
cd dockerkit
make setup

Configuration

Dockerkit Configuration

Customize enabled services in .env:

# Choose which services to start (comma-separated)
ENABLE_SERVICES="nginx,php-fpm,workspace,postgres,mysql,redis,rabbitmq,minio"

# Customize PHP extensions
DEPENDENCY_PHP_EXTENSIONS="gd,imagick,redis,xdebug,opcache"

Composer Authentication

For private repositories, configure workspace/auth.json:

{
  "github-oauth": {
    "github.com": "ghp_your_personal_access_token"
  },
  "gitlab-token": {
    "gitlab.com": "glpat-your_project_access_token"
  }
}

Or configure directly in workspace container:

dk  # Access workspace container
composer config --global repositories.repo-name composer https://packages.example.com
# See: https://getcomposer.org/doc/05-repositories.md

SSH Configuration

Mount SSH keys for deployment and git operations:

# Option 1: Copy keys to workspace/ssh/
cp ~/.ssh/* workspace/ssh/

# Option 2: Mount system SSH (in .env)
HOST_SSH_PATH=~/.ssh

make restart  # Apply changes

Usage

DockerKit provides a comprehensive set of Make targets for streamlined development:

# Environment Management
make setup         # Complete environment setup (run once)
make start         # Start selected services with network aliases
make stop          # Stop all services
make restart       # Restart selected services
make status        # Show current system status

# Project Management  
make project       # Create new project (Laravel/Symfony)
make dump          # Interactive database backup/restore tool

# Maintenance
make update        # Update DockerKit and rebuild containers
make reset         # Reset project to initial state
make lint          # Run all quality checks (Dockerfiles, bash scripts)
make tmp-clean     # Clean /tmp inside workspace container

The workspace container provides an enhanced terminal experience:

Interactive Navigation

• Ctrl+T — Interactive file finder (fzf)
• Ctrl+R — Fuzzy command history search
• Modern prompt — Starship with project context and git status

Smart Autocompletion

Bash completion available for all development tools:

• Composer commands and packages
• npm and Node.js tools
• Git branches and commands
• Laravel Artisan commands
• Symfony Console commands

Useful Aliases

Pre-configured shortcuts for common tasks:

# Laravel/PHP shortcuts
art             # php artisan
fresh           # php artisan migrate:fresh
seed            # php artisan db:seed

# Development tools
pint            # ./vendor/bin/pint
pest            # ./vendor/bin/pest
phpstan         # ./vendor/bin/phpstan

# File operations
ll              # ls -alF --color=auto
tree            # tree -I vendor -C

Web Consoles

Access management interfaces for development services:

Service	URL	Credentials	Purpose
Mailpit	http://localhost:8125	-	Email testing
MinIO Console	http://localhost:9001	dockerkit / dockerkit	File storage
RabbitMQ	http://localhost:15672	dockerkit / dockerkit	Message queues
Elasticvue	http://localhost:9210	-	Elasticsearch UI
Portainer	http://localhost:9010	Setup on first visit	Docker management

Development Tools

API Development Tools

• OpenAPI Generator CLI — Generate client libraries and server stubs from OpenAPI specs
• Vacuum — OpenAPI specification linter and quality checker

PHP Development Tools

• Composer with global packages (normalize, changelogs)
• Deployer — Modern deployment tool with zero-downtime deployments
• Laravel Installer — Quick Laravel project scaffolding
• Symfony CLI — Official Symfony command-line tool

Database Clients

• PostgreSQL client (psql)
• MySQL client (mysql)
• Redis tools (redis-cli)

Modern Terminal Experience

• fzf — Interactive fuzzy finder for file search and command history
• Starship — Modern shell prompt with project context
• yq — YAML processor for configuration management

Comparison

DockerKit vs Laradock

Feature	DockerKit	Laradock
Project Discovery	✅ Automatic scanning and detection	❌ Manual configuration
SSL Certificates	✅ Automatic SSL generation with mkcert	❌ Manual SSL setup
Nginx Configuration	✅ Auto-generated configs	❌ Manual nginx configuration
MinIO Management	✅ Automatic user/bucket creation based on project .env files	❌ Manual bucket setup
Database Creation	✅ Automatic database/user creation based on project .env files	❌ Manual database setup
Container Optimization	✅ Multi-stage builds, smaller images, caching	⚠️ Traditional Docker approach
Project Maturity	⚠️ Modern but newer project	✅ Battle-tested, proven by time
Available Services	⚠️ Focused essential toolkit	✅ Extensive service library
Community Support	⚠️ Growing community	✅ Large established community

🎯 Choose DockerKit if you want

• Automated workflow for local development
• Modern Docker practices with optimized performance
• Focus on essential tools without complexity

🎯 Choose Laradock if you need

• Extensive service ecosystem out of the box
• Proven stability and mature codebase
• Large community support and resources

Roadmap

DockerKit is actively developed with exciting features planned for future releases:

• Improve documentation — Comprehensive documentation with examples and clear structure
• Configure supervisor for process management — Advanced process monitoring and management
• Add RoadRunner support — High-performance PHP application server as alternative to PHP-FPM
• Add FrankenPHP support — Modern PHP runtime built on top of Caddy web server
• Add Laravel Horizon support — Queue monitoring and management dashboard
• Add support for Node.js projects — Automatic detection and configuration for Node.js applications
• Add MongoDB database support — Automatic collection setup with user management
• Add pgBadger support — PostgreSQL log analysis and performance insights

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

Security

Please review security policy on how to report security vulnerabilities.

Credits

• Pavel Bychko
• All Contributors

License

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The MIT License (MIT)