Directus + Coolify: Should You Decouple Postgres & Redis?

This is Part 2 of the Directus + Coolify series. If you're new here, start with "Secure Your VPS Before Hackers Do" and the first Directus + Coolify post — the bundled, single-Compose-file setup — before following along with this one. Introduction In the first method, we coupled all of the services into one stack using a single Docker Compose file. The network between all services was created automatically, and we didn't have to start them up individually — which removes the risk of a race condition if service startup isn't handled properly. If you're running a single app, that's genuinely the recommended way to set up Directus on a Coolify-managed VPS. Going in, I assumed there were several good reasons to split the services apart instead — more control over backups, monitoring, restarts, that kind of thing. So before recommending decoupling, I actually tested each of those assumptions on a live Coolify instance. Most of them turned out to be wrong. Myth 1: Restarting Directus Restarts the Whole Stack I expected that restarting Directus inside the bundled Compose file would restart Redis and Postgres along with it. It doesn't. Coolify lets you restart each service in the stack independently — Directus, Database, and Cache each get their own Restart button, right there in the same view. No decoupling needed for this one. Myth 2: You Need a Separate Database Resource for S3 Backups Same story. Even with Postgres bundled inside the Directus Compose file, Coolify still gives it its own dedicated Backups option, S3 included. This isn't a separate-resource-only feature. Myth 3: Scheduled Tasks Require Separate Services Also not true. Coolify exposes a Scheduled Tasks tab per service, even inside a single bundled stack — complete with a Container name dropdown letting you target the cron job at just the database, or just Directus, without splitting anything apart. What Actually Holds Up Two things survived testing. First: metrics. This one's confirmed directly in Coolify'