Containerize a Nodejs Application Using Docker

1. Create a Dockerfile:

FROM node:22.20.0-alpine3.21
WORKDIR /app

COPY package.json .

RUN npm install

COPY . .
EXPOSE 3000

CMD ["npm", "run", "dev"]

2. Create a docker-compose file for this NodeJS project:

# Change network proxy to your desired Docker network.
services:
  node-app:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    container_name: node-app
    volumes:
      - ./data:/app/data
    networks:
       - "proxy"
    # If using traefik as a reverse proxy, this can be commented out or removed.
    ports:
       - 3000:3000
    restart: unless-stopped

networks:
  proxy:
    external: true

3. Create a data folder in the project, add nodejs app files, package.json, and anything else needed for NodeJS into here.

4. Create a .dockerignore file in the root of the project, add this content into it

.git
*Dockerfile*
*docker-compose*
node_modules

5. Lastly, run the docker compose project: docker compose up -d

Credit for some of this guide

Credit for some of this guide goes to Oluwatobi on Freecodecamp

I have followed some of their guide, and found a dockerignore for nodejs.

Dockerignore for nodeJS: NodeJS .dockerignore