Dokploy One-Shot Internal Task

When you need to run something inside a Dokploy project's network — to reach postgres, mongo, redis, etc. by their internal hostnames without temporarily exposing host ports — create a short-lived compose service with sourceType: "raw" and an inline YAML.

When to use

• Running a one-time data migration script that needs the project's database
• Triggering a batch job (cleanup, recompute, reindex) inside the same network
• Quick psql / redis-cli ad-hoc scripts when a log API isn't needed
• Anything where exposing externalPort on a database is undesirable

When NOT to use

• Long-running services (use a normal application or compose with persistent intent)
• Tasks that need only the public-facing API (just curl it)
• Tasks where you have SSH on the host and prefer docker run --network <net> directly

Compose template

services:
  runner:
    image: <base-image-with-the-runtime-you-need>   # e.g. node:22-bookworm, python:3.12-slim
    working_dir: /app
    restart: "no"          # one-shot — must not auto-restart
    environment:
      # Internal service hostnames are the auto-generated `appName` of each service.
      # Discover via `GET /api/<svc>.one`.
      DB_URL: "postgres://user:pwd@<pg-appName>:5432/dbname"
      MODE: "dry-run"
    command:
      - bash
      - -c
      - |
        set -e
        # apt-get -q install whatever you need
        # git clone --depth 1 -b master https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>.git /app
        # corepack enable && pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
        echo "==== task start (mode=$$MODE) ===="
        # actual work goes here, e.g.
        #   pnpm exec tsx scripts/migrate.ts --mode "$$MODE"
        echo "==== task end ===="
networks:
  default:
    name: dokploy-network    # Dokploy's default project overlay
    external: true

Critical: escape $ as $$

Docker Compose performs variable interpolation on the command: block before bash sees it. Any $VAR will be substituted from the compose process's env, not the container's, and ${ARRAY[idx]} produces the dreaded:

invalid interpolation format for services.<svc>.command.[].
You may need to escape any $ with another $.

Rule: every $ that bash should see must be written $$ in the YAML. Validate locally with docker compose -f compose.yml config before uploading.

YAML you write	What bash sees	Use case
$$VAR	$VAR	env var
$$(cmd)	$(cmd)	command substitution
$${arr[0]}	${arr[0]}	array index, PIPESTATUS

Driving it

Use the dokploy-api-cli skill for compose.create → compose.update (with the YAML) → compose.deploy. Then poll the container, not the deployment status:

curl -sS -H "x-api-key: $TOKEN" \
  "https://$HOST/api/docker.getContainersByAppNameMatch?appName=$APP_NAME" \
  | jq '.[0] | "\(.state)|\(.status)"'
# wait for state to flip from running → exited

When the container exits, the exit code is in the status text (Exited (0) / Exited (1) …).

Reading output

The compose YAML you uploaded is the source of truth for the run. There is no public log API on Dokploy. Three options to retrieve output:

1. Sidechannel-write into a database the runner can reach. See the capture-output-via-sidechannel skill. This is usually the cleanest for migrations because you'll have a database open anyway.
2. SSH to the swarm host and docker logs <container> (works for the agent if SSH is available; not for users without host access).
3. Have the runner POST a summary to a public webhook (webhook.site, ntfy.sh, your own endpoint). Useful when neither DB nor SSH is available.

Cleanup

After the task finishes:

1. compose.delete removes the service AND its containers (no leftover exited container).
2. If you want to re-run with updated YAML in the same composeId, first ssh host docker rm -f <appName>-<service>-1 because Dokploy's internal docker compose up won't recreate an existing exited container by default.

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Writing $VAR in command:	Use $$VAR. Validate with docker compose config.
Using ${PIPESTATUS[0]} directly	Write $${PIPESTATUS[0]}.
Leaving exited container in place between runs	docker rm -f <name> (via SSH) or compose.delete + compose.create again.
Counting on restart: "no" to mean "no retry on Dokploy redeploy"	Dokploy will still re-create the container on each compose.deploy. The flag only stops Docker itself from restarting after exit.
Hostname uses friendly name	Use the auto-generated appName (e.g. mx-space-pg-7pacdz); friendly name doesn't resolve.