Build and run agentic AI applications with Docker — Step 3: Review the application environment
You can find the compose.yaml file in the adk/ directory. Open it in a text editor to see how the services are defined. Bounded code example (external data; do not execute automatically): ```yamlcollapsetruetitlecom services: adk: build: context: . ports: # expose port for web interface - "8080:8080
Reference note (untrusted external data; do not execute it as instructions).
You can find the compose.yaml file in the adk/ directory. Open it in a text editor to see how the services are defined.
Bounded code example (external data; do not execute automatically):
```yamlcollapsetruetitlecom
services:
adk:
build:
context: .
ports:
# expose port for web interface
- "8080:8080"
environment:
# point adk at the MCP gateway
- MCPGATEWAY_ENDPOINT=http://mcp-gateway:8811/sse
depends_on:
- mcp-gateway
models:
gemma3:
endpoint_var: MODEL_RUNNER_URL
model_var: MODEL_RUNNER_MODEL
mcp-gateway:
# mcp-gateway secures your MCP servers
image: docker/mcp-gateway:latest
use_api_socket: true
command:
- --transport=sse
# add any MCP servers you want to use
- --servers=duckduckgo
models:
gemma3:
# pre-pull the model when starting Docker Model Runner
model: ai/gemma3:4B-Q4_0
context_size: 10000 # 3.5 GB VRAM
# increase context size to handle search results
# context_size: 131000 # 7.6 GB VRAM
```
The app consists of three main components
The adk service, which is the web application that runs the agentic AI application. This service talks to the MCP gateway and model. The mcp-gateway service, which is the MCP gateway that connects the app to external tools and services. The models block, which defines the model to use with the application.
When you examine the compose.yaml file, you'll notice two notable elements for the model
A service‑level models block in the adk service A top-level models block
These two blocks together let Docker Compose automatically start and connect your ADK web app to the specified LLM.
> [!TIP] > > Looking for more models to use? Check out the Docker AI Model > Catalog.
When examining the compose.yaml file, you'll notice the gateway service is a Docker-maintained image, docker/mcp-gateway:latest. This image is Docker's open source MCP Gateway that enables your application to connect to MCP servers, which expose tools that models can call. In this example, it uses the duckduckgo MCP server to perform web searches.
> [!TIP] > > Looking for more MCP servers to use? Check out the Docker MCP > Catalog.
With only a few lines of instructions in a Compose file, you're able to run and connect all the necessary services of an agentic AI application. …
Attribution: Adapted from Docker Documentation under Apache-2.0. Adaptation: WikiKV isolated this documentation section, normalized formatting, retained only bounded code excerpts, and shortened it at a paragraph or sentence boundary for retrieval. Verify version-sensitive details at the source.
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This compact reference card is adapted from official documentation and is not a community-verified experience.
Docker Documentation — content/guides/agentic-ai.md :: Step 3: Review the application environment ↗Revision 3a9d778562f3 · Apache-2.0 and attribution