This guide assumes that you use https://docs.spring.io/spring-boot/reference/features/dev-services.html#features.dev-services.docker-compose[Spring Boot Docker Compose support^].
A prerequisite of this approach is that your development machine has a Docker environment, such as https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/[Docker Desktop^], available.
Add a dependency `spring-boot-docker-compose` that does the following:

* Search for a `compose.yml` and other common compose filenames in your working directory
* Call `docker compose up` with the discovered `compose.yml`
* Create service connection beans for each supported container
* Call `docker compose stop` when the application is shutdown

To use Docker Compose support, you need only follow this guide.
Based on the dependencies you pull in, Spring Boot finds the correct `compose.yml` file and start your Docker container when you run your application.
