diff --git a/src/api/config/filebeat.yml b/config/filebeat.yml
similarity index 100%
rename from src/api/config/filebeat.yml
rename to config/filebeat.yml
diff --git a/src/api/docker-compose.yaml b/docker-compose-api-production.yml
similarity index 98%
rename from src/api/docker-compose.yaml
rename to docker-compose-api-production.yml
index 3819bcbff4..507c5dd539 100644
--- a/src/api/docker-compose.yaml
+++ b/docker-compose-api-production.yml
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 version: '3'
 
 services:
+  # API Gateway
   traefik:
     image: traefik:v2.4
     container_name: 'traefik'
     restart: unless-stopped
     command:
-      - '--log.level=DEBUG'
       - '--api.insecure=true'
       - '--providers.docker=true'
       - '--providers.docker.exposedbydefault=true'
@@ -142,9 +142,10 @@ services:
     container_name: 'image'
     restart: unless-stopped
     build:
-      context: ./image
+      context: ./src/api/image
       dockerfile: Dockerfile
     environment:
+      - NODE_ENV=production
       - IMAGE_PORT=4444
       - SERVICE_NAME=image
       - ELASTICSEARCH_HOSTS=http://elasticsearch:9200
diff --git a/docker-compose-api.yml b/docker-compose-api.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f72c3f94f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-compose-api.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+version: '3'
+
+services:
+  # API Gateway
+  traefik:
+    image: traefik:v2.4
+    container_name: 'traefik'
+    restart: unless-stopped
+    command:
+      - '--log.level=DEBUG'
+      - '--api.insecure=true'
+      - '--providers.docker=true'
+      - '--providers.docker.exposedbydefault=true'
+      - '--entrypoints.web.address=:80'
+    ports:
+      - '80:80'
+      - '8080:8080'
+    volumes:
+      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
+
+  # Micro Services
+  image-dev:
+    container_name: 'image'
+    restart: unless-stopped
+    build:
+      context: ./src/api/image
+      dockerfile: Dockerfile
+    environment:
+      - IMAGE_PORT=4444
+      - SERVICE_NAME=image
+    depends_on:
+      traefik:
+        condition: service_started
+    ports:
+      - '4444'
+    labels:
+      # Traefik routing
+      - 'traefik.http.routers.image.rule=Host(`image.docker.localhost`)'
+      # Enable gzip compression
+      - 'traefik.http.routers.image.middlewares=test-compress'
+      - 'traefik.http.middlewares.test-compress.compress=true'
diff --git a/docs/docker.md b/docs/docker.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d9b609a0e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/docker.md
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+# Docker and Telescope
+
+## Introduction
+
+Telescope uses Docker to deploy all the different parts of our app. If you haven't
+worked with Docker before, it's worth taking a few minutes to [learn how it works](https://docs.docker.com/get-started/).
+
+You'll see Docker used in a few places
+
+## Setup
+
+See the [environment setup doc](environment-setup.md) for info specific to your platform.
+
+Once installed, Docker uses the following commands:
+
+- [`docker`](https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/cli/)
+- [`docker-compose`](https://docs.docker.com/compose/reference/)
+
+## Running Telescope via Docker
+
+We have a number of docker-compose files that control all the apps that we ship:
+
+- `docker-compose.yml` - the development version of our "classic" Telescope app (front-end and back-end)
+- `docker-compose-production.yml` - the production version of our "classic" Telescope app (front-end and back-end)
+
+We also have files for our new Microservices Back-end:
+
+- `docker-compose-api.yml` - the development version
+- `docker-compose-api-production.yml` - the production version
+
+The docker-compose files define a set of separate servers and services that can
+be run together with a single command.
+
+```
+# run our development version of the entire Telescope app, building any containers as necessary
+docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml up --build
+
+# stop the running containers
+docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml down
+```
+
+If you want to run a specific app or apps, you can name them:
+
+```
+# run our development version of the entire Telescope app, building any containers as necessary
+docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml up --build login redis telescope
+```
+
+### Running the Microservices
+
+For your convenience, you can use the following `npm` scripts:
+
+```
+# start the microservices containers and gateway in development
+npm run api:start
+
+# stop the containers
+npm run api:stop
+```
+
+The services will now be available via the defined routes:
+
+| Service                  | URL                                  |
+| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------ |
+| Background Image Service | http://image.docker.localhost/image/ |
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index e7c57609f5..7873d89f68 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@
     "html-elements": "./tools/html-elements.js"
   },
   "scripts": {
+    "api:start": "docker-compose -f docker-compose-api.yml up --build -d",
+    "api:stop": "docker-compose -f docker-compose-api.yml down",
     "install:image-service": "cd src/api/image && npm install",
     "install:autodeployment": "cd tools/autodeployment && npm install",
     "install:next": "cd src/frontend/next && npm install",