Depot Container Builds

Depot runs Docker image builds on remote high-performance builders (16 CPU, 32 GB RAM, NVMe SSD cache). depot build is a drop-in replacement for docker build / docker buildx build. depot bake replaces docker buildx bake.

Key Concepts

• Builds run remotely on ephemeral EC2 instances — images stay in remote cache by default
• Use --load to download to local Docker, --push to push to a registry, --save to store in Depot's ephemeral registry
• Cache is fully automatic on persistent NVMe SSDs — no manual cache config needed
• Multi-platform builds use native CPU builders (no QEMU emulation) for amd64 and arm64 simultaneously
• All team members on a project share the same layer cache

depot build — Essential Patterns

# Build remotely (image stays in remote cache)
depot build -t repo/image:tag .

# Build + download to local Docker daemon
depot build -t repo/image:tag . --load

# Build + push directly to registry (fast — doesn't route through local network)
depot build -t repo/image:tag . --push

# Multi-platform build (native CPUs, no emulation)
depot build --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 -t repo/image:tag . --push

# Save to Depot ephemeral registry (default 7-day retention)
depot build --save .
depot build --save --save-tag my-tag .

# Suppress provenance metadata (fixes "unknown/unknown" platform in registries)
depot build -t repo/image:tag --push --provenance=false .

# Lint Dockerfile before building
depot build -t repo/image:tag . --lint

# Build with secrets
depot build --secret id=mysecret,src=./secret.txt -t repo/image:tag .

# Build with SSH forwarding
depot build --ssh default -t repo/image:tag .

# Specify a Depot project explicitly
depot build --project <project-id> -t repo/image:tag .

Key Flags

depot bake — Multi-Image Builds

Drop-in replacement for docker buildx bake. Builds multiple images in parallel.

depot bake                                    # Default file lookup
depot bake -f docker-bake.hcl                 # Specific HCL file
depot bake -f docker-compose.yml --load       # Build compose services + load locally
depot bake --save --save-tag myrepo/app:v1    # Save to Depot Registry
depot bake --print                            # Print resolved config without building

Default file lookup order: compose.yaml → compose.yml → docker-compose.yml → docker-compose.yaml → docker-bake.json → docker-bake.override.json → docker-bake.hcl → docker-bake.override.hcl

HCL Bake File Example

variable "TAG" {
  default = "latest"
}

group "default" {
  targets = ["app", "worker"]
}

target "app" {
  dockerfile = "Dockerfile"
  platforms  = ["linux/amd64", "linux/arm64"]
  tags       = ["myrepo/app:${TAG}"]
  args = { NODE_VERSION = "20" }
}

target "worker" {
  dockerfile = "Dockerfile.worker"
  tags       = ["myrepo/worker:${TAG}"]
  contexts   = { app = "target:app" }  # Share base between targets
}

Override variables: TAG=v2.0 depot bake

Docker Compose with Per-Service Project IDs

services:
  api:
    build:
      dockerfile: ./Dockerfile.api
      x-depot:
        project-id: abc123
  web:
    build:
      dockerfile: ./Dockerfile.web
      x-depot:
        project-id: def456

Docker Compose Integration

# Preferred: build all services in parallel, then load
depot bake -f docker-compose.yml --load
docker compose up

# Alternative: zero code change (less efficient, each service = separate build)
depot configure-docker
docker compose build

Migration from Docker

# docker build → depot build (same flags, one-line swap)
depot build -t my-image .

# docker buildx bake → depot bake
depot bake -f docker-bake.hcl

# Zero code change via Docker plugin
depot configure-docker
docker build .  # Routes through Depot (look for [depot] prefix in logs)

When migrating, remove these flags — Depot handles caching automatically:

• --cache-from type=gha — causes "services aren't available" errors
• --cache-to type=gha — same issue
• Any manual BuildKit cache configuration

Common Mistakes

Builder Sizes

Billed per-second. Bake counts as one build regardless of target count.

Depot Registry

# Save image to Depot Registry
depot build --save -t myapp .

# Pull a saved image
depot pull --project <id> <build-id>

# Push saved image to another registry
depot push --project <id> -t registry/image:tag <build-id>

# Docker auth for Depot Registry
docker login registry.depot.dev -u x-token -p <depot-token>
# Registry URL: registry.depot.dev/<project-id>:<tag>

Special Output Formats

# estargz (lazy-pulling for faster container startup)
depot build --output "type=image,name=repo/image:tag,push=true,compression=estargz,oci-mediatypes=true,force-compression=true" .

# zstd compression (faster Fargate/K8s startup)
depot build --output type=image,name=repo/image:tag,oci-mediatypes=true,compression=zstd,compression-level=3,force-compression=true,push=true .