I use Docker Compose a lot in production because my clients are businesses that need internal software. There’s no need for big scaling or complex tools like Kubernetes, docker compose works great for what I need.
I usually deploy everything over SSH, just like you described.
To send images to the server, I build them locally, save them to a file using docker save, copy that file to the server, and load it there with docker load. This way, I don’t need to use any remote image registry. I have a script that handles it all, and it might be helpful for others who also want to avoid using a registry.
I also manually copy over the nginx.conf file and run it once when setting up a new project.
For SSL, I run certbot manually as well.
When I move files to the server, I like to put everything—including the volumes—in a specific folder so it stays organized the way I like.
Just wanted to share how I’m using it, maybe it gives you some ideas for future improvements to your tool.
Anyway, your tool looks really promising. If I were you, I’d definitely keep working on it. There are plenty of developers who would find it useful.