diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/compose.yaml
similarity index 93%
rename from docker-compose.yml
rename to compose.yaml
index 43d4348e..a8bf3672 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/compose.yaml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ services:
     command: seqrepo-rest-service -w /usr/local/share/seqrepo/2024-12-20
     network_mode: bridge
     ports:
-      - 5000:5000
+      - localhost:5000:5000
 
   uta:
     # Test:
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ services:
     volumes:
       - uta_vol:/var/lib/postgresql/data
     ports:
-      - 5432:5432
+      - localhost:5432:5432
 
 volumes:
   seqrepo_vol:
diff --git a/docs/setup_help/docker-compose-examples/seqrepo-copy-local.compose.yaml b/docs/setup_help/docker-compose-examples/seqrepo-copy-local.compose.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8624951e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/setup_help/docker-compose-examples/seqrepo-copy-local.compose.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+####
+# This is a docker-compose example to run seqrepo-rest-service by first populating the seqrepo_vol
+# with a local copy of the seqrepo data instead of re-downloading it.
+# Assumes SEQREPO_ROOT_DIR is set to the directory where your seqrepo data is stored.
+# e.g. if you ahve a seqrepo db at ~/.local/share/seqrepo/2024-12-20, SEQREPO_ROOT_DIR
+# should be set to ~/.local/share/seqrepo.
+#
+# It also includes a volume uta_dl_cache which enables the UTA database to be reconstructed
+# from scratch using postgres restore without re-downloading the archive file.
+####
+
+services:
+  seqrepo_local_populator:
+    # image: alpine
+    image: eeacms/rsync
+    volumes:
+      - seqrepo_vol:/usr/local/share/seqrepo
+      - $SEQREPO_ROOT_DIR:/seqrepo:ro
+    command: >
+      /bin/sh -c "rsync -a --delete /seqrepo/2024-12-20/ /usr/local/share/seqrepo/2024-12-20/"
+
+  seqrepo-rest-service:
+    # Test: curl http://localhost:5000/seqrepo/1/sequence/refseq:NM_000551.3
+    image: biocommons/seqrepo-rest-service:0.2.2
+    volumes:
+      - seqrepo_vol:/usr/local/share/seqrepo
+    depends_on:
+      seqrepo_local_populator:
+        condition: service_completed_successfully
+    command: seqrepo-rest-service -w /usr/local/share/seqrepo/2024-12-20
+    ports:
+      - 127.0.0.1:5001:5000
+
+  uta:
+    # Test:
+    # psql -XAt postgres://anonymous@localhost/uta -c 'select count(*) from uta_20241220.transcript'
+    # 314227
+    image: biocommons/uta:uta_20241220
+    environment:
+      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=some-password-that-you-make-up
+    volumes:
+      - uta_dl_cache:/tmp
+      - uta_vol:/var/lib/postgresql/data
+    ports:
+      - 127.0.0.1:5433:5432
+
+volumes:
+  seqrepo_vol:
+    external: true
+  uta_vol:
+    external: true
+  uta_dl_cache:
+    external: true
diff --git a/docs/setup_help/docker-compose-examples/seqrepo-mount-local.compose.yaml b/docs/setup_help/docker-compose-examples/seqrepo-mount-local.compose.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2a6dd2ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/setup_help/docker-compose-examples/seqrepo-mount-local.compose.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+####
+# This is a docker-compose example to run seqrepo-rest-service by mounting
+# a local directory of seqrepo instead of re-downloading it or storing it in a volume.
+# Assumes SEQREPO_ROOT_DIR is set to the directory where your seqrepo data is stored.
+# e.g. if you have a seqrepo db at ~/.local/share/seqrepo/2024-12-20, SEQREPO_ROOT_DIR
+# should be set to ~/.local/share/seqrepo.
+#
+# It also includes a volume uta_dl_cache which enables the UTA database to be reconstructed
+# from scratch using postgres restore without re-downloading the archive file.
+####
+
+services:
+
+  seqrepo-rest-service:
+    # Test: curl http://localhost:5000/seqrepo/1/sequence/refseq:NM_000551.3
+    image: biocommons/seqrepo-rest-service:0.2.2
+    volumes:
+    # Recommended to mount read-only to avoid accidentally modififying host files
+      - $SEQREPO_ROOT_DIR:/usr/local/share/seqrepo:ro
+    command: seqrepo-rest-service -w /usr/local/share/seqrepo/2024-12-20
+    ports:
+      - 127.0.0.1:5001:5000
+
+  uta:
+    # Test:
+    # psql -XAt postgres://anonymous@localhost/uta -c 'select count(*) from uta_20241220.transcript'
+    # 314227
+    image: biocommons/uta:uta_20241220
+    environment:
+      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=some-password-that-you-make-up
+    volumes:
+      - uta_dl_cache:/tmp
+      - uta_vol:/var/lib/postgresql/data
+    ports:
+      - 127.0.0.1:5433:5432
+
+volumes:
+  seqrepo_vol:
+    external: true
+  uta_vol:
+    external: true
+  uta_dl_cache:
+    external: true
diff --git a/docs/setup_help/docker-compose.md b/docs/setup_help/docker-compose.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..cba3b8b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/setup_help/docker-compose.md
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+The compose.yaml file in this repo can be used by Docker Compose. It has also been tested to work with Podman Compose.
+
+See full specification:
+https://github.com/compose-spec/compose-spec/blob/main/00-overview.md
+
+
+The default docker compose in this repo assumes you have not downloaded the UTA or SeqRepo databases out of band, but either ran the compose from scratch which runs the `biocommons/seqrepo` or `biocommons/uta` containers in a way that populates their databases if they don't exist, or you ran those containers on your own previously, such that the volumes `seqrepo_vol` and `uta_vol` are already populated.
+
+If you already have a SeqRepo database directory on your local filesystem, you can mount it directly as a volume, or can copy it into a docker volume (recommended if your local disk space is not a concern).
+
+
+For an example  of mounting a local seqrepo dir directly to the seqrepo-rest-service container see [seqrepo-mount-local.compose.yaml](./docker-compose-examples/seqrepo-mount-local.compose.yaml)
+
+
+For an example  of populating a docker volume with a local seqrepo dir see [seqrepo-copy-local.compose.yaml](./docker-compose-examples/seqrepo-copy-local.compose.yaml)
+
+
+In both of the above examples, a volume called `uta_dl_cache` is used. UTA downloads a postgres dump archive if its database is not populated yet, and stores the archive in `/tmp`. If we make `/tmp` a persistent volume, we can destroy the UTA container and the `uta_vol` and recreate it from scratch using the compressed archive in `uta_dl_cache`. The latest UTA compressed postgres dump for `biocommons/uta:uta_20241220` is 344MB, while the uncompressed postgres database created from it is 6GB.
+
+To run one of the compose files that uses a local seqrepo, with a seqrepo root dir in `~/.local/share/seqrepo/`, run
+
+```
+$ SEQREPO_ROOT_DIR=$HOME/.local/share/seqrepo/ docker-compose -f $(pwd)/docs/setup_help/docker-compose-examples/seqrepo-copy-local.compose.yaml up
+```