Docker Compose Services Won't Start? Here's Your Debugging Playbook

Docker Compose Services Won't Start? Here's Your Debugging Playbook You've just added a new service to your docker-compose.yml , run docker compose up -d , and... nothing. The container exits immediately, restarts in an infinite loop, or just sits there refusing to work. No helpful error message. Just frustration. Sound familiar? Every developer who works with Docker Compose has been there. The good news is that container failures follow predictable patterns. Once you know where to look, you can diagnose most issues in under five minutes. This guide will walk you through a systematic debugging approach, from the most common causes to the edge cases that make you question your life choices. The First Thing You Should Do Before diving into logs and configuration files, run this single command: docker compose ps -a The -a flag is crucial—it shows all containers, including the ones that exited. Without it, you'd only see running containers, which isn't helpful when debugging failures. The