What problem will this feature address?

When deploying Docker Compose applications, image builds currently happen on the same server used for runtime deployment. This creates a few issues:

• Build workloads consume CPU, memory, and disk I/O needed by production workloads.
• Large builds can slow down or destabilize the target runtime server.
• Teams cannot separate build infrastructure from runtime infrastructure.
• Multi-server setups cannot route build steps to a better-suited machine.

Describe the solution you'd like

Add support for selecting a dedicated build server for Docker Compose deployments.

Proposed behavior:

• Add an optional build server field to Docker Compose apps.
• Run compose build and related image build steps on the selected build server.
• Keep deployment/runtime steps on the existing target server.
• If no build server is configured, fallback to current behavior (use deployment server).
• Expose clear logs showing which server handled build vs deploy.
• Validate connectivity and permissions for both servers before deployment starts.

Describe alternatives you've considered

• Scaling the runtime server to handle both build and deploy workloads.
• Building images externally in CI and pushing to a registry manually.
• Using one global build server for all apps, which is less flexible than per-app configuration.
• Keeping current behavior and optimizing build settings, which does not solve workload isolation.

Additional context

This request tracks the Docker Compose build-server work that is currently being implemented.

Scope includes:

• Per-compose build server selection
• Server resolution logic for build operations with fallback behavior
• End-to-end API, worker, and deployment flow updates for compose builds
• Migration and data model support for storing compose build server assignment

Will you send a PR to implement it?

Yes