clojure -Sdeps '{:deps {nrepl/nrepl {:mvn/version "0.8.3"} refactor-nrepl/refactor-nrepl {:mvn/version "2.5.1"} cider/cider-nrepl {:mvn/version "0.25.9"}} :aliases {:cider/nrepl {:main-opts ["-m" "nrepl.cmdline" "--middleware" "[refactor-nrepl.middleware/wrap-refactor,cider.nrepl/cider-middleware]"]}}}' -M:cider/nrepl you can use the same command cider is using to start the repl. Above is an example I took from my Messages buffer

this will peek a random port number, add "-p" "number" to :main-opts will give you fixed port number which can be used in docker-compose file to “expose”