docker-compose NPM container keeps restarting

Question

I am trying to create a container that is just running cli scripts. At the moment I do not have the scripts written I'm just trying to get the container started first. The following set up creates the container fine, but it keeps restarting and after spending hours trying to find a solution on line I've not got any closer to a solution:

DockerFile

FROM node:18-alpine
WORKDIR /src
COPY package*.json /
EXPOSE 3000

RUN npm install -g nodemon && npm install
COPY . /

docker-compose.yml

version: '3.8'
services:
  calculations-script:
    restart: unless-stopped
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: DockerFile
    command: npm run dev
    volumes:
      - ./:/src
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"

package.json

{
  "name": "test-nodejs-script",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Test script",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
    "dev": "node index.js"
  },
  "author": "Testing",
  "license": "ISC"
}

Answer 1

You container is restarting because of the restart field in your manifest which is set at unless-stopped . unless-stopped ensure that container is always restarted unless manually stopped.

What you probably want is no or on-failure , docs for more details