Quickstart¶

Overview¶

Despite offering extensive configuration options, Watchtower's default settings are suitable for most deployments. If you need to modify the configuration, then review the available documentation.

Docker CLI¶

Docker Run CLI Reference

Pull and run Watchtower

docker run -d \
  --name watchtower \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  nickfedor/watchtower

Docker Compose¶

Docker Compose File Reference

Obtain the example Docker Compose file:

Download via PowerShell (Windows)Download via Bash (Linux)Copy

iwr -Uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nicholas-fedor/watchtower/refs/heads/main/examples/default/docker-compose.yaml -OutFile docker-compose.yaml

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nicholas-fedor/watchtower/refs/heads/main/examples/default/docker-compose.yaml -o docker-compose.yaml

docker-compose.yaml

services:
  watchtower:
    image: nickfedor/watchtower:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock

Run the Compose file:
```
docker compose up -d
```

Expected Behavior¶

When running Watchtower with its default settings:

It will monitor all running containers on the host
Every 24 hours, it will poll if the monitored containers have updated image digests

If an updated image digest is detected, then Watchtower will:

Pull the updated container image
Perform a graceful shutdown of the target container and its dependencies
Start a new container with the updated image while maintaining the previous container's configuration