Documented steps

Services on the shared compose network resolve each other by service name, e.g. web reaching `db:5432`.
With netavark networking (podman 4.x+ default) DNS works out of the box; with the CNI backend you must install the podman dnsname plugin or hostnames won't resolve.
Use `depends_on` to order startup so the DB is up before the app connects.
Join an existing network with `networks: - external: name: <net>`.
Docs: https://github.com/containers/podman-compose (dnsname requirement)

Known gotchas

Without dnsname (CNI) or netavark, inter-container hostnames silently fail while each container resolves itself.
Services not on the same network can't see each other — connect them to a shared user-defined network.
`localhost` inside a container is that container, not another service — use the service name.

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Enable service-to-service DNS resolution between Podman Compose services

Documented steps

Known gotchas

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