Docker Buildpack

Last modified: March 25, 2026

Introduction

This page explains how to build a Docker image from your Mendix App using a Docker buildpack. Every time you make changes to your app, you must create a new Docker image that can be pushed through the different stages of your application pipeline.

This how-to teaches you how to do the following:

Build the image
Push the image to a registry

Prerequisites

Before starting these instructions, make sure you have completed the following prerequisites:

Download the latest version of Mendix Studio Pro from the Mendix Marketplace
Install Docker from the Docker site
Download the Mendix Docker Buildpack

Compatibility

Mendix is compatible with Docker hosts as long as there are compatible database services like PostgreSQL, RDS, or Azure SQL. External file store support can be set up with Amazon S3 or Azure Blob store.

Building the Image

To build the Docker image, follow these steps:

Install Docker on your computer.
Restart the computer to ensure that you have been granted access to Docker.
Unzip the buildpack into a location of your choice.
Open the Command Prompt and navigate to the folder where you unzipped the buildpack.
Open your app in Studio Pro and select the menu option App > Show App Directory in Explorer:
Copy the project folder and all its subfolders to the unzipped docker build folder. The project folder needs to be in the same folder as the Docker file, otherwise Docker cannot access it.
Execute the following command:
```
docker build --build-arg BUILD_PATH="{relative-mendix-project-location}" -t {image name} .
```
{relative-mendix-project-location} is the BUILD_PATH which indicates where the application model is located. It is the directory where your .MPR file is located after you copied the project into the docker build folder. If you do not specify it, it defaults to ./project.

A successful build will resemble the output shown below:

You can find much more information and links to relevant Docker documentation in the Mendix Docker Buildpack GitHub repository.

Pushing the Image

A new Docker image has been created with the name ({image name}) you gave it. You can see the image by using the command docker images.

Next, you need to push the image to a registry. This can be a public registry or your own. To push it to your own registry, use the command docker push {image name}.

Running the Mendix Docker Image

To start the container, you must provide the container with the password in order to create an administrative account for your Mendix application's ADMIN_PASSWORD and DATABASE_ENDPOINT, as you can see in this example:

docker run -it \
  -e ADMIN_PASSWORD=Password1! \
  -e DATABASE_ENDPOINT=postgres://username:password@host:port/mendix \
  mendix/mendix-buildpack:v1.2

This is an example for Microsoft SQL Server:

docker run -it \
  -e ADMIN_PASSWORD=Password1! \
  -e DATABASE_ENDPOINT=sqlserver://username:password@host:port/mendix \
  mendix/mendix-buildpack:v1.2

Mendix Docker Buildpack