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Run multiple local services in parallel without port conflicts. Perfect for multi-project development environments.

Spin up multiple versions of PostgreSQL, Redis, and other services simultaneously — each isolated by name and accessible via DNS.

Key Features

Quick start

Requires Docker installed and running.

# macOS
brew tap lcmen/extra
brew install compartment

# Linux / Windows (WSL2)
ARCH=$(uname -m | sed 's/x86_64/amd64/;s/aarch64/arm64/')
URL=https://github.com/lcmen/compartment/releases/latest/download
curl -fsSL $URL/compartment-linux-$ARCH -o ~/.local/bin/compartment
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/compartment

# Verify installation
compartment check

DNS Configuration

DNS Server

Start the built-in DNS server so services are reachable by name:

compartment start devdns

On WSL2, port 53 is owned by systemd-resolved — use a different host port, then restart the resolver so it picks up the running devdns (complete the WSL2 resolver setup below first):

compartment -e DNS_PORT=5353 start devdns sudo systemctl restart systemd-resolved

Resolver

The custom resolver allows you to route all .container requests to your DNS server running inside the devdns container.

macOS (Docker Desktop)

Create /etc/resolver/container:

nameserver 127.0.0.1

Not needed for OrbStack — it handles DNS resolution automatically.

Linux

Configure systemd-resolved to forward *.container queries to devdns:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d sudo tee /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d/devdns.conf << 'EOF' [Resolve] DNS=127.0.0.1 Domains=~container EOF sudo systemctl restart systemd-resolved

Linux (WSL2)

WSL overwrites /etc/resolv.conf on startup, bypassing systemd-resolved. Fix this first (run once):

# Stop WSL from overwriting resolv.conf echo -e "[network]\ngenerateResolvConf = false" | sudo tee -a /etc/wsl.conf # Append systemd-resolved nameserver to resolv.conf echo 'nameserver 127.0.0.53' | sudo tee -a /etc/resolv.conf # Restart WSL from PowerShell to apply wsl.conf changes wsl.exe --shutdown

All existing DNS continues to work — internet, VPN, and local hostnames resolve through the Windows DNS fallback as before. Fully reversible: remove the [network] block from /etc/wsl.conf and restart WSL to restore automatic DNS management.

Configure systemd-resolved to forward *.container queries to devdns and Windows DNS as fallback:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d sudo tee /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d/devdns.conf << 'EOF' [Resolve] DNS=127.0.0.1:5353 10.255.255.254 Domains=~container ~. EOF sudo systemctl restart systemd-resolved

Example usage

# Start PostgreSQL 15 for legacy project
compartment -n legacy.db start postgresql 15

# Start PostgreSQL 17 for new project
compartment -n newapp.db start postgresql 17

# Add Redis for caching
compartment -n newapp.cache start redis 8

# Check what's running
compartment status legacy.db
compartment status newapp.db

# Access via DNS (with devdns)
psql -h legacy.db.container -U postgres
psql -h newapp.db.container -U postgres

Services