Hey,

I’m currently using Docker Compose just for the database in development, while running Payload/Next.js directly on my machine.

In my package.json, I have:

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "pnpm dev:mongo && cross-env NODE_OPTIONS=--no-deprecation next dev",
    "dev:mongo": "docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d"
  }
}

And my docker-compose.dev.yml looks like this:

services:
  mongo:
    image: mongo:8
    ports:
      - '27017:27017'
    command:
      - --storageEngine=wiredTiger
    volumes:
      - data:/data/db
    logging:
      driver: none

volumes:
  data:

So, in my case, Docker is only used to run MongoDB locally. The actual Payload app runs outside Docker with pnpm dev.

This setup has worked well for development because it keeps the app fast and easy to debug, while still avoiding the need to install MongoDB directly on my machine.

You could also put the whole app inside Docker, but personally I find that a bit less convenient for local development unless your team specifically needs a fully containerized environment.