Restart Docker Containers After Env Change | Generated by AI
When you change .env, Docker won’t automatically reload those environment variables. You need to restart the containers so they pick up the new values. For your LibreChat setup, you can do it like this:
- Make sure you’re in the same directory as your
docker-compose.ymlfile. - Run:
docker compose down
docker compose up -d
That will stop and remove the running containers, then recreate them with the new .env values.
Alternative: restart only
If you don’t want to fully tear everything down, you can force containers to pick up the new env by rebuilding:
docker compose up -d --force-recreate
Or if you’ve also changed Dockerfiles or dependencies, add --build:
docker compose up -d --build
✅ In short:
- After editing
.env, always recreate containers (down+uporup --force-recreate). - A simple
docker compose restartwon’t reload new env values, it just restarts with the old ones.
Do you also want me to show you how to verify your LibreChat containers are using the new env values (e.g. with docker inspect or docker exec env)?