Docker Compose
A tool that defines and runs multi-container applications from a single declarative YAML file.
Instead of long docker run commands, you describe services, volumes and networks in a compose.yaml file and bring the whole stack up with one command. It is the de facto standard for self-hosting and makes your setup reproducible and easy to back up.
The real value is that the Compose file becomes documentation and source of truth in one. Keep it in a Git repository and you have a versioned history of your setup that you can roll back or rebuild from at any time. A typical file defines the application container, its database and cache, the volumes that hold persistent data, and the shared network that connects everything to a reverse proxy. Bring it up with `docker compose up -d`, update with `docker compose pull && docker compose up -d`, and you have a clean, repeatable workflow for every service on your server.