Databases

A collection of self-contained database stacks (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, SQL Server), each in its own folder with a matching admin GUI. All configuration is driven from a single .env file at the project root.

databases/
├── .env                 # the ONLY env file — all real values live here
├── .env.example         # template with placeholders (safe to commit)
├── .gitignore           # ignores .env, keeps .env.example
├── docker-compose.yml   # root orchestrator — run everything from HERE
├── postgres/            # PostgreSQL + pgAdmin
├── mongoDb/             # MongoDB + mongo-express
└── mssql/               # SQL Server + CloudBeaver

Each folder has its own README.md with provider-specific commands and notes.

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What's inside

Stack	Database	Admin GUI	DB port	GUI URL
postgres	PostgreSQL 16	pgAdmin 4	5432	http://localhost:5050
mongoDb	MongoDB 7	mongo-express	27017	http://localhost:8081
mssql	SQL Server 2022	CloudBeaver	1433	http://localhost:8978

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How to run — from the project root

The root docker-compose.yml includes all three stacks, and Docker Compose auto-loads the root .env. Run all docker compose commands from this folder.

# Start everything
docker compose up -d

# Start a single stack (its GUI pulls the DB up via depends_on)
docker compose up -d postgres pgadmin        # PostgreSQL + pgAdmin
docker compose up -d mongodb mongo-express    # MongoDB + mongo-express
docker compose up -d mssql cloudbeaver        # SQL Server + CloudBeaver

# Status / logs
docker compose ps
docker compose logs -f postgres

# Stop (keep data)
docker compose down

# Stop and DELETE all data volumes
docker compose down -v

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⚠️ Running a stack from inside its own folder

Because there is only one .env at the root, Docker Compose will not find it if you cd into a subfolder — it only auto-loads a .env from the current directory. Running a stack directly from its folder will produce variable is not set warnings and blank values.

Preferred: always run from the project root (see above).

If you must run from inside a folder, point at the root env file explicitly:

cd postgres
docker compose --env-file ../.env up -d

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Configuration

• Edit the single root .env to change credentials, database names, or host ports. Variable names are namespaced per provider (POSTGRES_*, MONGO_*, MSSQL_*, PGADMIN_*, ME_CONFIG_*) so there are no collisions.

• .env is git-ignored. Copy .env.example → .env when setting up a fresh clone:

  cp .env.example .env

• Passwords containing a literal $ must be escaped as $$ in .env, otherwise Compose treats $ as the start of a variable reference.