Run & Deploy

services:
  db:
    image: postgres:16
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: secret
      POSTGRES_DB: inventory
    ports: ["5432:5432"]
    volumes: ["dbdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data"]

  api:
    build: ./server
    env_file: ./server/.env
    ports: ["5000:5000"]
    depends_on: [db]

  web:
    build: ./web
    ports: ["3000:3000"]
    depends_on: [api]

volumes:
  dbdata:

$ docker compose up -d --build   # build + start everything
$ docker compose logs -f         # watch all services
$ docker compose down            # stop (data stays in the volume)

Example Dockerfiles

Place each file next to its package.json. For Next.js / NestJS, the official docs publish optimised multi-stage examples — search “Dockerfile” on nextjs.org and docs.nestjs.com. For Express + React/Vite:

FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --omit=dev
COPY . .
EXPOSE 5000
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

FROM node:20-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build

FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
RUN npm install -g serve
COPY --from=builder /app/dist ./dist
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["serve", "-s", "dist", "-l", "3000"]

• ✓Secure your MongoDB Atlas cluster — in production, restrict the IP allowlist to your EC2 instance's public IP instead of 0.0.0.0/0.
• ✓Strong secrets — a long random JWT_SECRET; never reuse the dev value. Run openssl rand -hex 64 to generate one.
• ✓Lock CORS — set the API’s CORS origin to your real frontend URL (the CLIENT_URL env var) instead of the dev localhost value.
• ✓Real email — swap Mailtrap for a production SMTP (Gmail App Password, SendGrid, or Resend). Update EMAIL_HOST, EMAIL_USER, EMAIL_PASS in server/.env.
• ✓Update CLIENT_URL and STORE_OWNER_EMAIL — verification links and redirects must point at the live domain.