---
resources: examples/connections/azure_openai.yml, examples/flows/standard/web-classification
category: deployment
weight: 40
---

# Deploy a flow using Docker

This example demos how to deploy flow as a docker app.
We will use [web-classification](../../../flows/standard/web-classification/README.md) as example in this tutorial.

## Build a flow as docker format app

Note that all dependent connections must be created before building as docker.
```bash
# create connection if not created before
pf connection create --file ../../../connections/azure_openai.yml --set api_key=<your_api_key> api_base=<your_api_base> --name open_ai_connection
```

Use the command below to build a flow as docker format app:

```bash
pf flow build --source ../../../flows/standard/web-classification --output dist --format docker
```

## Deploy with Docker
### Build Docker image

Like other Dockerfile, you need to build the image first. You can tag the image with any name you want. In this example, we use `promptflow-serve`.

Run the command below to build image:

```shell
docker build dist -t web-classification-serve
```

### Run Docker image

Run the docker image will start a service to serve the flow inside the container.

#### Connections
If the service involves connections, all related connections will be exported as yaml files and recreated in containers.
Secrets in connections won't be exported directly. Instead, we will export them as a reference to environment variables:
```yaml
$schema: https://azuremlschemas.azureedge.net/promptflow/latest/OpenAIConnection.schema.json
type: open_ai
name: open_ai_connection
module: promptflow.connections
api_key: ${env:OPEN_AI_CONNECTION_API_KEY} # env reference
```
You'll need to set up the environment variables in the container to make the connections work.

### Run with `docker run`


You can run the docker image directly set via below commands:
```shell
# The started service will listen on port 8080.You can map the port to any port on the host machine as you want.
docker run -p 8080:8080 -e OPEN_AI_CONNECTION_API_KEY=<secret-value> web-classification-serve
```

### Test the endpoint
After start the service, you can use curl to test it:

```shell
curl http://localhost:8080/score --data '{"url":"https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.twitter.android"}' -X POST  -H "Content-Type: application/json"
```
