docs/compose/compose-v2/index.md

description	keywords	title
Key features and use cases of Docker Compose	documentation, docs, docker, compose, orchestration, containers, uses, features	Compose V2 Overview

Compose V2 and the new docker compose command

Important

The new Compose V2, which supports the compose command as part of the Docker CLI, is now available.

Compose V2 integrates compose functions into the Docker platform, continuing to support most of the previous docker-compose features and flags. You can run Compose V2 by replacing the hyphen (-) with a space, using docker compose, instead of docker-compose. {: .important}

If you rely on using Docker Compose as docker-compose (with a hyphen), you can set up Compose V2 to act as a drop-in replacement of the previous docker-compose. Refer to the Installing Compose section for detailed instructions.

Context of Docker Compose evolution

Introduction of the Compose specification{:target="blank" rel="noopener" class=""} makes a clean distinction between the Compose YAML file model and the docker-compose implementation. Making this change has enabled a number of enhancements, including adding the compose command directly into the Docker CLI, being able to "up" a Compose application on cloud platforms by simply switching the Docker context, and launching of Amazon ECS and Microsoft ACI. As the Compose specification evolves, new features land faster in the Docker CLI.

Compose V2 relies directly on the compose-go bindings which are maintained as part of the specification. This allows us to include community proposals, experimental implementations by the Docker CLI and/or Engine, and deliver features faster to users. Compose V2 also supports some of the newer additions to the specification, such as profiles and GPU devices.

Compose V2 has been re-written in Go, which improves integration with other Docker command-line features, and allows it to run natively on macOS on Apple silicon, Windows, and Linux, without dependencies such as Python.

For more information about compatibility with the compose v1 command-line, see the docker-compose compatibility list.