How to Set Up Docker for Laravel Development in 2026

Project Structure

project/
├── docker/
│   ├── nginx/
│   │   └── default.conf
│   └── php/
│       └── Dockerfile
├── docker-compose.yml
├── .env
└── ...

PHP Dockerfile

# docker/php/Dockerfile
FROM php:8.3-fpm

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
    git curl libpng-dev libonig-dev libxml2-dev zip unzip

RUN docker-php-ext-install pdo_mysql mbstring exif pcntl bcmath gd

RUN pecl install redis && docker-php-ext-enable redis

COPY --from=composer:latest /usr/bin/composer /usr/bin/composer

WORKDIR /var/www/html

USER www-data

Nginx Config

# docker/nginx/default.conf
server {
    listen 80;
    root /var/www/html/public;
    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass app:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

Docker Compose

# docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'

services:
  app:
    build: ./docker/php
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html
    networks:
      - laravel

  nginx:
    image: nginx:alpine
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html
      - ./docker/nginx/default.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
    depends_on:
      - app
    networks:
      - laravel

  mysql:
    image: mysql:8.0
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: laravel
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: secret
    volumes:
      - mysql_data:/var/lib/mysql
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"
    networks:
      - laravel

  redis:
    image: redis:alpine
    ports:
      - "6379:6379"
    networks:
      - laravel

networks:
  laravel:

volumes:
  mysql_data:

Running Commands

# Start containers
docker-compose up -d

# Install dependencies
docker-compose exec app composer install

# Run migrations
docker-compose exec app php artisan migrate

# Run artisan commands
docker-compose exec app php artisan tinker