[BUG] selecting compose.override.yaml in the editor ignores the main compose.yaml

[legeana]

Description

Dockhand doesn't take the main compose.yaml into account if compose.override.yaml is being used as the primary file. This is very unfortunate because there are a number of docker compose distributions provided by service developers where the operator is expected to primarily edit compose.override.yaml, e.g. https://github.com/zulip/docker-zulip.

To fix this Dockhand should run Command: docker compose -p test-override -f /mnt/user/apps/test-override/compose.yaml -f /mnt/user/apps/test-override/compose.override.yaml up -d --remove-orphans --force-recreate as it does when compose.yaml is selected in the same directory.

A somewhat more comprehensive fix would be to improve support of switching between main and override compose files, maybe have a list of compose files passed to -f as a generic solution and allow the user to quickly switch between them in the UI.

P.S. There is another bug I discovered related to compose.override.yaml

Switching between compose.yaml and compose.override.yaml results in the content override prompt: instead of switching the file. I believe this shows that Dockhand assumes a single compose file in the UI, and compose.override.yaml support is inconsistent.

P.P.S. This is not the same as #367 where seemingly the main compose file is used, but it is not very clear.

Steps to reproduce

1. Create compose.yaml

# cat compose.yaml
services:
  app:
    image: nginx:alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
  app2:
    image: nginx:alpine
    restart: unless-stopped

2. Create compose.override.yaml

# cat compose.override.yaml
services:
  app2:
    image: nicolaka/netshoot
    command: sleep 1000

3. Open compose.override.yaml in Dockhand:
4. Press Save and redeploy, this runs Command: docker compose -p test-override -f /mnt/user/apps/test-override/compose.override.yaml up -d --remove-orphans --force-recreate
5. Observe only the app2 from override running.

Logs

Current log:

2026-04-05T15:31:19.141Z [Stack:test-override] ----------------------------------------
2026-04-05T15:31:19.141Z [Stack:test-override] EXECUTE LOCAL COMPOSE
2026-04-05T15:31:19.141Z [Stack:test-override] ----------------------------------------
2026-04-05T15:31:19.141Z [Stack:test-override] Operation: up
2026-04-05T15:31:19.141Z [Stack:test-override] Command: docker compose -p test-override -f /mnt/user/apps/test-override/compose.override.yaml up -d --remove-orphans --force-recreate
2026-04-05T15:31:19.141Z [Stack:test-override] Working directory: /mnt/user/apps/test-override
2026-04-05T15:31:19.141Z [Stack:test-override] Compose file: /mnt/user/apps/test-override/compose.override.yaml
2026-04-05T15:31:19.141Z [Stack:test-override] DOCKER_HOST: (local socket)
2026-04-05T15:31:19.141Z [Stack:test-override] DOCKER_API_VERSION: (not set - native negotiation)
2026-04-05T15:31:19.141Z [Stack:test-override] Force recreate: true
2026-04-05T15:31:19.141Z [Stack:test-override] Remove volumes: false
2026-04-05T15:31:19.141Z [Stack:test-override] Service name: (all services)
2026-04-05T15:31:19.141Z [Stack:test-override] Env vars count: 0
2026-04-05T15:31:19.141Z [Stack:test-override] Spawning docker compose process...
2026-04-05T15:31:19.907Z [Stack:test-override] ----------------------------------------
2026-04-05T15:31:19.907Z [Stack:test-override] COMPOSE PROCESS COMPLETE
2026-04-05T15:31:19.907Z [Stack:test-override] ----------------------------------------


Expected log:

2026-04-05T15:50:24.868Z [Stack:test-override] ----------------------------------------
2026-04-05T15:50:24.868Z [Stack:test-override] EXECUTE LOCAL COMPOSE
2026-04-05T15:50:24.868Z [Stack:test-override] ----------------------------------------
2026-04-05T15:50:24.868Z [Stack:test-override] Operation: up
2026-04-05T15:50:24.868Z [Stack:test-override] Command: docker compose -p test-override -f /mnt/user/apps/test-override/compose.yaml -f /mnt/user/apps/test-override/compose.override.yaml up -d --remove-orphans --force-recreate
2026-04-05T15:50:24.868Z [Stack:test-override] Working directory: /mnt/user/apps/test-override
2026-04-05T15:50:24.868Z [Stack:test-override] Compose file: /mnt/user/apps/test-override/compose.yaml
2026-04-05T15:50:24.868Z [Stack:test-override] DOCKER_HOST: (local socket)
2026-04-05T15:50:24.868Z [Stack:test-override] DOCKER_API_VERSION: (not set - native negotiation)
2026-04-05T15:50:24.868Z [Stack:test-override] Force recreate: true
2026-04-05T15:50:24.868Z [Stack:test-override] Remove volumes: false
2026-04-05T15:50:24.868Z [Stack:test-override] Service name: (all services)
2026-04-05T15:50:24.868Z [Stack:test-override] Env vars count: 0
2026-04-05T15:50:24.868Z [Stack:test-override] Spawning docker compose process...
2026-04-05T15:50:26.331Z [Stack:test-override] ----------------------------------------
2026-04-05T15:50:26.331Z [Stack:test-override] COMPOSE PROCESS COMPLETE
2026-04-05T15:50:26.331Z [Stack:test-override] ----------------------------------------

Browser logs

Dockhand version

1.0.24

Hawser version (if used)

No response

Connection mode

socket

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