`docker volume create my_vol` in docker-compose.yml, declare volumes with property `external: true`. This tells docker compose not to create volumes. If external = false, then docker compose will prefix the volume declared with the directory name. Example: /home /sam /docker /my_app - docker-compose.yml The volume name will end up being `my_app_my_vol` Example docker-compose.yml: ``` version: "3" volumes: my_vol: external: true services: my_app: volumes: - my_vol:/data <-- attach volume to /data inside container ... ... ```