diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..dfc9f6b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Dockerfile
+compose-*.yml
+*.md
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b23b4489
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# copied from https://github.com/datproject/datBase/blob/master/Dockerfile
+FROM node:6.9
+EXPOSE 80
+
+ENV PORT 80
+ENV NODE_ENV development
+
+ENV DATADIR /data
+VOLUME /data
+
+RUN mkdir -p /usr/src/app
+WORKDIR /usr/src/app
+COPY package.json /usr/src/app/
+RUN npm install --production --loglevel warn 
+COPY . /usr/src/app
+RUN npm link
+COPY compose-sync.sh /
+ENTRYPOINT ["dat"]
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 70365602..b77c3457 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ Have questions? Join our chat via IRC or Gitter:
 - [Installation](#installation)
 - [Getting Started](#getting-started)
 - [Using Dat](#usage)
+- [Using Dat from Docker](#dockerusage)
 - [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting)
 - [Javascript API](#js-api)
 - [For Developers](#for-developers)
@@ -190,6 +191,35 @@ Once a dat is created, you can run all the commands inside that folder, similar
 
 Dat keeps secret keys in the `~/.dat/secret_keys` folder. These are required to write to any dats you create.
 
+## Docker Usage
+
+To get a dat dataset using a Docker container, you can either do it directly:
+
+```
+docker run -d --name demo-data \
+		-p 3282:3282/tcp -p 3282:3282/udp \
+		-e DATAURL=dat://778f8d955175c92e4ced5e4f5563f69bfec0c86cc6f670352c457943666fe639 \
+		-e DATADIR=/data \
+		-v $(pwd)/data:/data \
+		--entrypoint /compose-sync.yml
+		dat
+```
+
+or use `compose-sync.yml` from Docker swarm mode:
+
+```
+$ docker stack up -c compose-sync.yml demo-data
+Creating network demo-data_default
+Creating service demo-data_dat-sync
+
+$ docker run --rm -v demo-data_sync:/data alpine ls /data
+dat.json
+dat_intro.gif
+```
+
+The Docker image uses `DATADIR` and `DATAURL` if there is no dat data already available, but both environment variables
+are optional if there is already dat data in the `/data` dir.
+
 ### Sharing
 
 The quickest way to get started sharing files is to `share`:
diff --git a/compose-sync.sh b/compose-sync.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..bce1883c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compose-sync.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+: "${DATADIR:=/data}"
+
+
+if [ -d "$DATADIR/.dat" ]; then
+	echo "using dat to sync data from in $DATADIR"
+	dat $OPTS sync $DATADIR
+else
+	if [[ "$(ls $DATADIR)" == "" ]]; then
+		echo "using dat to sync data from $DATAURL into $DATADIR"
+		dat $OPTS clone $DATAURL $DATADIR
+	else
+		echo "$DATADIR not empty, and no .dat dir, so creating new share"
+		dat $OPTS create $DATADIR
+		dat $OPTS share $DATADIR
+	fi
+fi
+dat sync $DATADIR
diff --git a/compose-sync.yml b/compose-sync.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..bd7915e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compose-sync.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+version: "3.4"
+services:
+  dat-sync:
+    image: svendowideit/dat
+    #command: clone dat://f6d022942d14f3a27c9c09af8c7e673038652a6f11626efbd38f0308f6b47bbf /data
+    entrypoint: /compose-sync.sh
+    environment:
+      - DATAURL=dat://778f8d955175c92e4ced5e4f5563f69bfec0c86cc6f670352c457943666fe639
+      - DATADIR=/data
+    ports:
+      - "3282:3282/tcp"
+      - "3282:3282/udp"
+    volumes:
+      - sync:/data
+
+
+volumes:
+  sync: