Publishing a Docker service

A sidecar publishes an existing application without changing the application itself.

Minimal pattern

services:
  app:
    image: example/app:latest
    networks: [private]

  knotroute:
    image: ghcr.io/localzet/knotroute-sidecar:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks: [private]
    volumes:
      - knotroute-data:/data
    environment:
      KNOTROUTE_NETWORK_ID: "kn_..."
      KNOTROUTE_BEACONS: "https://beacon-a.example,https://beacon-b.example"
      KNOTROUTE_SERVICE_NAME: "web"
      KNOTROUTE_SERVICE_TARGET: "app:8080"

networks:
  private:

volumes:
  knotroute-data:

The application needs no public host port if it is intended to be KnotRoute-only.

Persistent identity

Do not delete the sidecar /data volume. Losing the service identity creates a different canonical .knot address.

Address discovery

Read docker compose logs knotroute; the sidecar prints the published service address and target.

Health

The sidecar exposes a health endpoint (commonly :9090/healthz) for process checks. Use a real remote .knot request for end-to-end monitoring.

Source