docker compose pull Command Reference

By Daniel Zoghalchali·Latchkey

Pull the images for services in a compose file.

docker compose pull fetches the registry images referenced by a compose file ahead of time. In CI, pulling before up makes startup deterministic and lets you authenticate or warm a cache as a distinct step.

Common flags

• -q, --quiet - pull without progress output
• --ignore-buildable - skip services that have a build section
• --include-deps - also pull images for dependencies
• --policy - pull policy, e.g. always or missing
• Positional service names limit the pull to those services

Example

docker compose pull --quiet --ignore-buildable
docker compose up -d --build --wait

In CI

Pre-pull registry images with --ignore-buildable so only the third-party service images are fetched (your buildable services are handled by compose build). Doing it in its own step isolates pull failures and rate limits from the build and run steps.

Key takeaways

• --ignore-buildable pulls only registry images, not services you build locally.
• Pre-pulling isolates registry rate-limit and auth failures from later steps.
• -q keeps CI logs clean during the pull.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• Docker documentation
• Docker build cache
• GitHub Actions documentation