[Bug]: Docker Compose in subfolder does not find dockerfile in parent folder

[SpaceshipCreative]

Error Message and Logs

I try to deploy the Paperclip AI GitHub repo using the Docker Compose file in the Docker subfolder. It does not find the Dockerfile in the parent directory.

2026-Apr-13 15:47:59.235450
Deployment failed: Command execution failed (exit code 1): docker exec bd0u5ob6nrk0898pv7qelmxy bash -c 'DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 COOLIFY_BRANCH=release/v2026.410.0 COOLIFY_RESOURCE_UUID=g2i7vlf0zy99ejy7ium2znws docker compose --env-file /artifacts/build-time.env --project-name g2i7vlf0zy99ejy7ium2znws --project-directory /artifacts/bd0u5ob6nrk0898pv7qelmxy -f /artifacts/bd0u5ob6nrk0898pv7qelmxy/docker/docker-compose.yml build --pull --no-cache --build-arg COOLIFY_FQDN --build-arg PAPERCLIP_PUBLIC_URL --build-arg BETTER_AUTH_SECRET --build-arg PAPERCLIP_DEPLOYMENT_MODE --build-arg SERVICE_URL_SERVER --build-arg SERVICE_FQDN_SERVER --build-arg COOLIFY_BUILD_SECRETS_HASH=ccc042a35813477be2b89aa1dcae660f42d6010ef956cb57957574c98d7bf7b2'
2026-Apr-13 15:47:59.235450
Error: failed to solve: failed to read dockerfile: open Dockerfile: no such file or directory
2026-Apr-13 15:47:59.235450
2026-Apr-13 15:47:59.235450
exit status 1

Steps to Reproduce

Try to deploy Paperclip from the docker-compose.yml file (in the /docker folder). https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip

Example Repository URL

https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip

Coolify Version

v4.0.0-beta-473

Are you using Coolify Cloud?

No (self-hosted)

Operating System and Version (self-hosted)

No response

Additional Information

No response

[djsisson]

this is because coolify sets the project directory, but when compose passes the bake file to buildkit, it also passes this path as the context, so having a compose file with context of .., resolves to a path now outside the build context

the correct solution is to append the path to the project directory, so the above command would have been

--project-directory /artifacts/bd0u5ob6nrk0898pv7qelmxy/docker this then works as expected
see below

docker run --rm -it -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock coollabsio/coolify-helper sh -c "git clone https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip.git /artifacts/bd0u5ob6nrk0898pv7qelmxy && BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=test docker compose --project-name bd0u5ob6nrk0898pv7qelmxy --project-directory /artifacts/bd0u5ob6nrk0898pv7qelmxy/docker -f /artifacts/bd0u5ob6nrk0898pv7qelmxy/docker/docker-compose.yml build --pull --build-arg BETTER_AUTH_SECRET"

note it will fail to build due to using an old github cli key which has been rotated, i.e the dockerfile expects 20e0125d6f6e077a9ad46f03371bc26d90b04939fb95170f5a1905099cc6bcc0 but its now 6084d5d7bd8e288441e0e94fc6275570895da18e6751f70f057485dc2d1a811b