Run /
Override command or entrypoint
Your deployments will specify either a command (CMD
), an entrypoint (ENTRYPOINT
), or both to identify the command or executable to run in your built image. Commands or entrypoints will be either defined in your Dockerfile, generated by the buildpack, or defined by a Procfile (for buildpack builds). In many cases you will not need to change these settings from the default.
Overriding the command or entrypoint in an individual service or job allows you to run a built image without updating the Dockerfile or re-building it, or affecting any other deployments of the image. This allows you to run different services or jobs from the same repository, for example if you have a repository containing microservices or need to run a migration.
Entrypoint and command overrides can be combined when required, for example if you want to run shell commands or use variables.
You can configure the Docker runtime mode when creating a deployment (combined service, deployment service, or job) to override the default command and/or entrypoint at runtime. You can set the Docker runtime mode for existing services and jobs from the CMD override page.
If your Dockerfile defines an ENTRYPOINT instruction , the entrypoint instruction and parameters will be processed first, then any CMD instruction and parameters. The executed command in this case is a concatenation of the entrypoint and command instructions.
Override command
You can override the default command from the CMD override page in your job or service by selecting custom command
as the Docker runtime mode.
Enter the new command and save changes to restart your containers with the new command. To use the default command again, select default configuration
as the runtime mode and save changes to restart your deployment. Jobs will use the new configuration the next time they run.
Command | Effect | |
---|---|---|
node server/index.js mode=test | Runs server/index.js using node with the parameter mode=test | |
/start.sh | Executes the shell script /start.sh |
You may need to also override the entrypoint, if one exists, to execute your command successfully.

Command override format
The Docker CMD instruction is run in exec
form on Northflank, where the executable and parameters are given as elements in an array:
CMD ["executable", "parameter1", "parameter2"]
Override entrypoint
You can override the default entrypoint from the CMD override page in your job or service by selecting custom entrypoint
as the Docker runtime mode.
Enter the new entrypoint and save changes to restart your containers with the new entrypoint. To use the default entrypoint again, select default con