If you work with Docker Compose daily, you've typed some version of this hundreds of times:

docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml --profile dev exec app bash

compose-lazy is a CLI tool I built to cut that down. It provides shorthand commands for the most common docker compose workflows, and — more usefully — lets you pick compose files, profiles, and services interactively instead of remembering or typing them.

pipx install compose-lazy
# or
uv tool install compose-lazy

Three commands are added to your PATH: dcp, dcpu, and dcpe.

The basics: shorter commands

# docker compose up --build -d
dcpu -b -d

# docker compose exec app bash
dcpe app

# docker compose logs app -f
dcp l app -fo

# docker compose stop
dcp s

The aliases map closely to the originals — dcpu is always docker compose up, dcpe is always docker compose exec, and dcp is a general-purpose entry point for everything else (build, restart, ps, logs, stop, down, ...).

The useful part: interactive selection

This is where compose-lazy earns its name. Pass an option flag without a value and it reads your project and prompts you to choose.

Pick a compose file with -f

$ dcpu -f
☑ Found 2 compose files!
    1. docker-compose.yml
    2. docker-compose.prod.yml
Enter your choices (e.g., 1,3,4) or 'q' to quit: 2
▷ Executing `docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up`.

Multiple selections work too — enter 1,2 to use both files.

Pick a profile with -pf

$ dcp re -pf
☑ Found 2 profiles!
    1. dev
    2. prod
Enter your choices (e.g., 1,3,4) or 'q' to quit: 1
▷ Executing `docker compose --profile dev restart`.

Pick a service with -s

$ dcp l -s
☑ Found 3 services!
    1. app
    2. db
    3. frontend
Enter your choices (e.g., 1,3,4) or 'q' to quit: 1,2
▷ Executing `docker compose logs app db`.

For exec and run, the service prompt appears automatically when no service is given — no -s needed:

$ dcpe
☑ Found 3 services!
    1. app
    2. db
    3. frontend
Enter your choice or 'q' to quit: 1
▷ Executing `docker compose exec app bash`.

There's also a small quality-of-life detail: dcpe uv run pytest auto-detects that uv isn't a service name, falls back to interactive service selection, and carries uv run pytest forward as the inner command.

Workspace management: operate multiple repos at once

The workspace feature is for projects that span multiple repositories. Register repos into a named workspace and run commands across all of them with a single prompt.

Register a repo

$ dcp ws register
Please enter a new directory path: /path/to/repo
☑ Found 2 docker-compose files!
    1. docker-compose.yml
    2. docker-compose.prod.yml
Enter your choices (e.g., 1,3,4) or 'q' to quit: 1

☑ Found 1 registered workspace!
    1. myproject
Or '0' for a new entry.
Enter your choice or 'q' to quit: 0
Please enter a new workspace name: myproject

☑ Registered new path to myproject: /path/to/repo (docker-compose.yml)

You can register multiple repos into the same workspace. Each repo gets its own compose file pinned at registration time.

Bring up everything

$ dcp ws up
☑ Found 1 registered workspace!
    1. myproject
Enter your choice or 'q' to quit: 1

───── 📂 myproject ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
▷ Executing `docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d` in MYPROJECT.

All workspace subcommands:

Config lives in ~/.config/compose-lazy/config.yml.

Requirements

• Python 3.11+
• Docker with Compose V2 (docker compose, not docker-compose)

🔗 PyPI | GitHub