Why Adopt

Docker eliminates “works on my machine” problems by containerizing the entire development environment. Every project gets identical, isolated dependencies regardless of what else is installed on the host machine.

Key Benefits

1. Reproducibility - Same environment everywhere
2. Isolation - Projects don’t conflict with each other
3. Minimal host deps - Only Docker required
4. Team alignment - Everyone runs identical setup

DX Protocol Integration

Docker is the foundation of my DX Protocol approach:

• Single ./dx/start command spins up everything
• Services defined in docker-compose.yml
• No local Ruby, PostgreSQL, or Redis installations needed
• New machine? Install Docker, clone repo, start building

My Usage Pattern

Every project includes:

• App container - Ruby/Rails with all gems
• Database container - PostgreSQL with data persistence
• Redis container - For caching and background jobs
• Volume mounts - Code edits reflect immediately

Why Not Local Installs?

Tried managing local Ruby versions, Postgres instances, etc. Problems:

• Version conflicts between projects
• Onboarding friction for new machines
• “It works for me” debugging sessions
• Cleanup complexity

Docker solves all of these.

Performance Considerations

On macOS, Docker can be slower than native. Mitigations:

• Use :cached volume mounts
• Keep node_modules in named volumes
• Consider OrbStack as Docker Desktop alternative

Current Status

Foundational tooling for all projects. The initial setup investment pays dividends in reduced environment issues and faster onboarding.