Docker Compose for Odoo development: reproducible stacks in one command

Every Odoo developer on our team runs the same Compose stack. No "works on my machine" — the machine is irrelevant.

The stack

services:
  db:
    image: postgres:18
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: odoo
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: odoo
      POSTGRES_DB: odoo
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
 
  odoo:
    build: .
    depends_on: [db]
    ports: ["8069:8069"]
    volumes:
      - ./addons:/mnt/extra-addons
    environment:
      HOST: db
      USER: odoo
      PASSWORD: odoo
 
  mailpit:
    image: axllent/mailpit
    ports: ["8025:8025", "1025:1025"]

Bind-mount addons in dev; bake them in prod. Mailpit catches every outbound e-mail so you can test workflows without spamming real inboxes. Point Odoo's SMTP settings at mailpit:1025 — no auth required in dev.

Quality-of-life extras

• .env file for ports and database names — never commit secrets.
• A make reset-db target that restores a anonymised staging dump.
• pgAdmin or Adminer as an optional profile for debugging.

Onboarding a new developer goes from days to an afternoon. That compounds.