docs/content/manuals/compose/bridge/usage.md

title	linkTitle	weight	description	keywords
Use the default Compose Bridge transformation	Usage	10	Learn how to use the default Compose Bridge transformation to convert Compose files into Kubernetes manifests	docker compose bridge, compose kubernetes transform, kubernetes from compose, compose bridge convert, compose.yaml to kubernetes

{{< summary-bar feature_name="Compose bridge" >}}

Compose Bridge supplies an out-of-the-box transformation for your Compose configuration file. Based on an arbitrary compose.yaml file, Compose Bridge produces:

• A Namespace so all your resources are isolated and don't conflict with resources from other deployments.
• A ConfigMap with an entry for each and every config resource in your Compose application.
• Deployments for application services. This ensures that the specified number of instances of your application are maintained in the Kubernetes cluster.
• Services for ports exposed by your services, used for service-to-service communication.
• Services for ports published by your services, with type LoadBalancer so that Docker Desktop will also expose the same port on the host.
• Network policies to replicate the networking topology defined in your compose.yaml file.
• PersistentVolumeClaims for your volumes, using hostpath storage class so that Docker Desktop manages volume creation.
• Secrets with your secret encoded. This is designed for local use in a testing environment.

It also supplies a Kustomize overlay dedicated to Docker Desktop with:

• Loadbalancer for services which need to expose ports on host.
• A PersistentVolumeClaim to use the Docker Desktop storage provisioner desktop-storage-provisioner to handle volume provisioning more effectively.
• A Kustomize file to link all the resources together.

Use the default Compose Bridge transformation

To use the default transformation run the following command:

$ docker compose bridge convert

Compose looks for a compose.yaml file inside the current directory and then converts it.

When successful, Compose Bridge generates Kubernetes manifests and logs output similar to the following:

$ docker compose bridge convert -f compose.yaml 
Kubernetes resource api-deployment.yaml created
Kubernetes resource db-deployment.yaml created
Kubernetes resource web-deployment.yaml created
Kubernetes resource api-expose.yaml created
Kubernetes resource db-expose.yaml created
Kubernetes resource web-expose.yaml created
Kubernetes resource 0-avatars-namespace.yaml created
Kubernetes resource default-network-policy.yaml created
Kubernetes resource private-network-policy.yaml created
Kubernetes resource public-network-policy.yaml created
Kubernetes resource db-db_data-persistentVolumeClaim.yaml created
Kubernetes resource api-service.yaml created
Kubernetes resource web-service.yaml created
Kubernetes resource kustomization.yaml created
Kubernetes resource db-db_data-persistentVolumeClaim.yaml created
Kubernetes resource api-service.yaml created
Kubernetes resource web-service.yaml created
Kubernetes resource kustomization.yaml created

These files are then stored within your project in the /out folder.

The Kubernetes manifests can then be used to run the application on Kubernetes using the standard deployment command kubectl apply -k out/overlays/desktop/.

[!IMPORTANT]

Make sure you have enabled Kubernetes in Docker Desktop before you deploy your Compose Bridge transformations.

If you want to convert a compose.yaml file that is located in another directory, you can run:

$ docker compose bridge convert -f <path-to-file>/compose.yaml 

To see all available flags, run:

$ docker compose bridge convert --help

[!TIP]

You can convert and deploy your Compose project to a Kubernetes cluster from the Compose file viewer.

Make sure you are signed in to your Docker account, navigate to your container in the Containers view, and in the top-right corner select View configurations and then Convert and Deploy to Kubernetes.

What's next?

• Explore how you can customize Compose Bridge