ddev Command-Line Usage

Type ddev or ddev -hin a terminal window to see the available ddev commands. There are commands to configure a project, start, stop, describe, etc. Each command also has help. For example, ddev stop -h shows that ddev rm is an alias, and shows all the many flags that can be used with ddev stop.

Favorite Commands

Each of these commands has full help. For example, ddev start -h or ddev help start. Just typing ddev will get you a list of available commands.

• ddev config configures a project for ddev, creating a .ddev directory according to your responses. It should be executed in the project (repository) root.
• ddev start and ddev stop start and stop the containers that comprise a project. ddev restart just does a stop and a start. ddev poweroff stops all ddev-related containers and projects.
• ddev describe or ddev describe <projectname> gives you full details about the project, what ports it uses, how to access them, etc.
• ddev list shows running projects
• ddev import-db and ddev export-db let you import or export a sql or compressed sql file.
• ddev composer lets you run composer (inside the container), for example ddev composer install will do a full composer install for you without even needing composer on your computer. See developer tools.
• ddev snapshot makes a very fast snapshot of your database that can be easily and quickly restored with ddev restore-snapshot.
• ddev ssh opens a bash session in the web container (or other container).
• ddev share works with ngrok (and requires ngrok) so you can let someone in the next office or on the other side of the planet see your project and what you're working on. ddev share -h gives more info about how to set up ngrok (it's easy).
• ddev launch or ddev launch some/uri will launch a browser with the current project's URL (or a full URL to /some/uri). And ddev launch -p will launch the PHPMyAdminUI, and ddev launch -m will launch the MailHogUI.
• ddev delete is the same as ddev stop --remove-data and will delete a project's database and ddev's record of the project's existence. It doesn't touch your project or code. ddev delete -O will omit the snapshot creation step that would otherwise take place, and ddev delete images gets rid of spare Docker images you may have on your machine.

Partial Bundled Tools List

In addition to the commands listed above, there are loads and loads of tools included inside the containers:

• ddev describe tells how to access mailhog, which captures email in your development environment.
• ddev describe tells how to use the built-in PHPMyAdmin.
• Composer, git, node, npm, and dozens of other tools are installed in the web container, and you can access them via ddev ssh or ddev exec.
• ddev logs gets you webserver logs; ddev logs -s db gets dbserver logs.
• sqlite3 and the mysql client are inside the web container (and mysql client is also in the db container).

Quickstart Guides

Here are quickstart instructions for generic PHP, WordPress, Drupal 6, Drupal 7, Drupal 8, TYPO3, and Backdrop.

Prerequisites: Before you start, follow the installation instructions. Make sure to check the system requirements, you will need docker and docker-compose to use ddev.

PHP Project Quickstart

DDEV works happily with most any PHP or static HTML project, although it has special additional support for several CMSs. But you don't need special support if you already know how to configure your project.

1. Create a directory (mkdir my-new-project)
2. cd into the directory
3. ddev config
4. Get initial code:
   • Clone your project into the current directory
   • Or build it with ddev composer create <package_name>
5. ddev start
6. Configure any database settings; host='db', user='db', password='db', database='db'
7. If needed, import a database with ddev import-db
8. Visit the project and continue on.

WordPress Quickstart

Composer Setup Example Using roots/bedrock

mkdir my-wp-bedrock-site
cd my-wp-bedrock-site
ddev config --project-type=wordpress --docroot=web --create-docroot=true
ddev start
ddev composer create roots/bedrock
ddev start

Successfully started my-wordpress-site
Your application can be reached at: http://my-wordpress-site.ddev.site

Now, since bedrock uses a configuration technique which is unusual for WordPress:

• Edit the .env file which has been created in the project root, and set:

    DB_NAME=db
    DB_USER=db
    DB_PASSWORD=db
    DB_HOST=db
    WP_HOME=https://my-wp-bedrock-site.ddev.site

For more details see bedrock installation

Git Clone Example

To get started using ddev with an existing WordPress project, clone the project's repository. Note that the git URL shown here is just an example.

git clone https://github.com/example/example-site.git
cd example-site

From here we can start setting up ddev. Inside your project's working directory, enter the command:

ddev config

You'll see a message like:

An existing user-managed wp-config.php file has been detected!
Project ddev settings have been written to:

/Users/rfay/workspace/bedrock/web/wp-config-ddev.php

Please comment out any database connection settings in your wp-config.php and
add the following snippet to your wp-config.php, near the bottom of the file
and before the include of wp-settings.php:

// Include for ddev-managed settings in wp-config-ddev.php.
$ddev_settings = dirname(__FILE__) . '/wp-config-ddev.php';
if (is_readable($ddev_settings) && !defined('DB_USER')) {
  require_once($ddev_settings);
}

If you don't care about those settings, or config is managed in a .env
file, etc, then you can eliminate this message by putting a line that says
// wp-config-ddev.php not needed
in your wp-config.php

So just add the suggested include into your wp-config.php, or take the workaround shown.

Now start your project with ddev start

Quickstart instructions regarding database imports can be found under Database Imports.

Drupal 8 Quickstart

Get started with Drupal 8 projects on ddev either using a new or existing composer project or by cloning a git repository.

Composer Setup Example

mkdir my-drupal8-site
cd my-drupal8-site
ddev config --project-type=drupal8 --docroot=web --create-docroot
ddev start
ddev composer create drupal/recommended-project:^8
ddev composer remove drupal/core-project-message
ddev composer require drush/drush
ddev start
ddev launch

When ddev start runs, it outputs status messages to indicate the project environment is starting. When the startup is complete, ddev outputs a message like the one below with a link to access your project in a browser.

Successfully started my-drupal8-site
Your project can be reached at: http://my-drupal8-site.ddev.site

Drupal 8 Git Clone Example

Note that the git URL shown below is an example only, you'll need to use your own project.

git clone https://github.com/example/example-site
cd example-site
ddev composer install

Drupal 9 Quickstart

Get started with Drupal 9 projects on ddev either using a new or existing composer project or by cloning a git repository.

Drupal 9 Composer Setup Example

mkdir my-drupal9-site
cd my-drupal9-site
ddev config --project-type=drupal9 --docroot=web --create-docroot
ddev start
ddev composer create drupal/recommended-project:9.0.x-dev
ddev composer remove drupal/core-project-message
ddev composer require drush/drush
ddev start
ddev launch

drupal 9 Git Clone Example

Note that the git URL shown below is an example only, you'll need to use your own project.

git clone https://github.com/example/example-site
cd example-site
ddev composer install

Drupal 6/7 Quickstart

Beginning to use ddev with a Drupal 6 or 7 project is as simple as cloning the project's repository and checking out its directory.

git clone https://github.com/user/my-drupal-site
cd my-drupal-site
ddev config

After ddev config, you're ready to start running your project. Run ddev using:

ddev start
ddev launch /install.php

(Drupal 7 doesn't know how to redirect from the front page to the /install.php if the database is not set up but the settings files are set up, so launching with /install.php gets you started with an installation. You can aso drush site-install, ddev exec drush site-install --yes)

Quickstart instructions for database imports can be found under Database Imports.

TYPO3 Quickstart

TYPO3 Composer Setup Example

mkdir my-typo3-site
cd my-typo3-site
ddev config --project-type=typo3 --docroot=public --create-docroot=true
ddev start
ddev composer create "typo3/cms-base-distribution:^9" --prefer-dist
ddev start

On TYPO3 versions < 9 an install may fail if you use the https URL to install because the allowed proxy is not configured yet ("Trusted hosts pattern mismatch"). Please use "http" instead of "https" for the URL while doing the install.

If doing a basic TYPO3 install, you can then touch public/FIRST_INSTALL and hit the http URL top begin an installation.

To connect to the database within the database container directly, please see the developer tools page.

To get started using ddev with a TYPO3 project, clone the project's repository and checkout its directory.

TYPO3 Git Clone Example

git clone https://github.com/example/example-site
cd example-site
ddev composer install

Backdrop Quickstart

To get started with Backdrop, clone the project repository and navigate to the project directory.

git clone https://github.com/example/example-site
cd example-site

To set up ddev for your project, enter the command:

ddev config

Note: ddev config will prompt you for a project name, docroot, and project type.

After ddev config, you're ready to start running your project. Run ddev using:

ddev start

When ddev start runs, it outputs status messages to indicate the project environment is starting. When the startup is complete, ddev outputs a message like the one below with a link to access your project in a browser.

Successfully started example-site
Your application can be reached at: http://example-backdrop-site.ddev.site

Magento 1 Quickstart

1. Download Magento 1 (not recommended, as it's end-of-life) from release page.
2. Make a directory for it, for example mkdir ~/workspace/magento1 and change directory to the new directory.
3. Extract the download, for example tar -zxf ~/Downloads/magento-mirror-1.9.4.3.tar.gz --strip-components=1
4. ddev config and accept the defaults.
5. ddev start
6. Follow the URL to the base site.

You may want the Magento 1 Sample Data for experimentation.

Note that Magento 1 is a huge codebase and using nfs_mount_enabled: true is recommended for performance on macOS and Windows, see docs.

Magento 2 Quickstart

Normal details of a composer build for Magento 2 are on Magento 2 site You must have a public and private key to install from Magento's repository; when prompted for "username" and "password" in the composer create it's asking for your public and private keys.

mkdir ddev-magento2 && cd ddev-magento2
ddev config --project-type=magento2 --docroot=pub --create-docroot=true
ddev start
ddev composer create --repository=https://repo.magento.com/ magento/project-community-edition
ddev ssh
bin/magento setup:install  --db-host=db --db-name=db --db-user=db --db-password=db  --admin-firstname=Magento --admin-lastname=User --admin-email=user@example.com  --admin-user=admin --admin-password=admin123 --language=en_US
bin/magento setup:store-config:set --base-url="https://ddev-magento2.ddev.site/"
bin/magento cache:clean
bin/magento deploy:mode:set developer

Of course, change the admin name and related information is needed. The project name here is derived from the directory name (ddev-magento2 in this example). Your project name (and thus the setup:store-config:set --base-url) will almost certainly be different.

You may want to add the Magento 2 Sample Data.

Note that Magento 2 is a huge codebase and using nfs_mount_enabled: true is recommended for performance on macOS and Windows, see docs.

Database Imports

Import a database with just one command; We offer support for several file formats, including: .sql, sql.gz, mysql, mysql.gz, tar, tar.gz, and zip.

Here's an example of a database import using ddev:

ddev import-db --src=dumpfile.sql.gz

Note for Backdrop users: In addition to importing a Backdrop database, you will need to extract a copy of your Backdrop project's configuration into the local active directory. The location for this directory can vary depending on the contents of your Backdrop settings.php file, but the default location is [docroot]/files/config_[random letters and numbers]/active. Please refer to the Backdrop documentation for more information on moving your Backdrop site into the ddev environment.

Getting Started

Check out the git repository for the project you want to work on. cd into the directory, run ddev config, and follow the prompts.

Configuration files have now been created for your project. Take a look at the project's .ddev/config.yaml file.

Now that the configuration files have been created, you can start your project with ddev start (still from within the project working directory):

ddev start

Starting environment for drupal8...
Creating local-drupal8-db
Creating local-drupal8-web
Waiting for the environment to become ready. This may take a couple of minutes...
Successfully started drupal8
Your project can be reached at: <http://drupal8.ddev.site>

And you can now visit your working project by URL or just give the command ddev launch. Enjoy!

Configuration files

Note: If you're providing the settings.php or wp-config.php and DDEV is creating the settings.ddev.php (or wp-config-local.php, AdditionalConfig.php, or similar), the main settings file must explicitly include the appropriate DDEV-generated settings file.

Note: If you do not want DDEV-Local to create or manage settings files, set disable_settings_management: true in your .ddev/config.yaml or ddev config --disable-settings-management and you will be the only one that edits or updates settings files.

The ddev config command attempts to create a CMS-specific settings file with DDEV credentials pre-populated.

For Drupal and Backdrop, DDEV settings are written to a DDEV-managed file, settings.ddev.php. The ddev config command will ensure that these settings are included in your settings.php through the following steps:

• Write DDEV settings to settings.ddev.php
• If no settings.php file exists, create one that includes settings.ddev.php
• If a settings.php file already exists, ensure that it includes settings.ddev.php, modifying settings.php to write the include if necessary.

For Magento 1, DDEV settings go into app/etc/local.xml

In Magento 2, DDEV settings go into app/etc/env.php

For TYPO3, DDEV settings are written to AdditionalConfiguration.php. If AdditionalConfiguration.php exists and is not managed by DDEV, it will not be modified.

For Wordpress, DDEV settings are written to a DDEV-managed file, wp-config-ddev.php. The ddev config command will attempt to write settings through the following steps:

• Write DDEV settings to wp-config-ddev.php
• If no wp-config.php exists, create one that include wp-config-ddev.php
• If a DDEV-managed wp-config.php exists, create one that includes wp-config.php
• If a user-managed wp-config.php exists, instruct the user on how to modify it to include DDEV settings

How do you know if DDEV manages a settings file? You will see the following comment. Remove the comment and DDEV will not attempt to overwrite it!

/**
 #ddev-generated: Automatically generated Drupal settings.php file.
 ddev manages this file and may delete or overwrite the file unless this comment is removed.
 */

Listing project information

ddev list or ddev list --active-only current projects.

➜  ddev list
NAME          TYPE     LOCATION                   URL(s)                                STATUS
d8git         drupal8  ~/workspace/d8git          <https://d8git.ddev.local>              running
                                                  <http://d8git.ddev.local>
hobobiker     drupal6  ~/workspace/hobobiker.com                                        stopped

➜  ddev list --active-only
NAME     TYPE     LOCATION             URL(s)                      STATUS
drupal8  drupal8  ~/workspace/drupal8  <http://drupal8.ddev.site>   running
                                       <https://drupal8.ddev.site>

You can also see more detailed information about a project by running ddev describe from its working directory. You can also run ddev describe [project-name] from any location to see the detailed information for a running project.

NAME        TYPE     LOCATION                URL                           STATUS
d8composer  drupal8  ~/workspace/d8composer  https://d8composer.ddev.site  running

Project Information
-------------------
PHP version:    7.3
MariaDB version 10.2

URLs
----
https://d8composer.ddev.site
https://127.0.0.1:33232
http://d8composer.ddev.site
http://127.0.0.1:33233

MySQL/MariaDB Credentials
-------------------------
Username: "db", Password: "db", Default database: "db"

or use root credentials when needed: Username: "root", Password: "root"

Database hostname and port INSIDE container: db:3306
To connect to db server inside container or in project settings files:
mysql --host=db --user=db --password=db --database=db
Database hostname and port from HOST: 127.0.0.1:33231
To connect to mysql from your host machine,
mysql --host=127.0.0.1 --port=33231 --user=db --password=db --database=db

Other Services
--------------
MailHog (https):    https://d8composer.ddev.site:8026
MailHog:            http://d8composer.ddev.site:8025
phpMyAdmin (https): https://d8composer.ddev.site:8037
phpMyAdmin:         http://d8composer.ddev.site:8036

DDEV ROUTER STATUS: healthy
ssh-auth status: healthy

Removing projects from DDEV-Local

To remove a project from DDEV-Local's listing you can use the destructive option (deletes database, removes item from ddev's list, removes hostname entry in hosts file):

ddev delete <projectname> or ddev delete --omit-snapshot <projectname>

Or if you just don't want it to show up in ddev list any more, use ddev stop --unlist <projectname> to unlist it until the next time you ddev start or ddev config the project.

Importing assets for an existing project

An important aspect of local web development is the ability to have a precise recreation of the project you are working on locally, including up-to-date database contents and static assets such as uploaded images and files. ddev provides functionality to help with importing assets to your local environment with two commands.

Importing a database

The ddev import-db command is provided for importing the MySQL database for a project. Running this command will provide a prompt for you to specify the location of your database import. By default ddev import-db empties the default "db" database and then loads the provided dumpfile.

➜  ddev import-db
Provide the path to the database you wish to import.
Import path:
~/Downloads/db.sql
Importing database...
Successfully imported database for drupal8

Supported file types

Database import supports the following file types:

• Raw SQL Dump (.sql)
• Gzipped SQL Dump (.sql.gz)
• (Gzipped) Tarball Archive (.tar, .tar.gz, .tgz)
• Zip Archive (.zip)
• stdin

If a Tarball Archive or Zip Archive is provided for the import, you will be provided an additional prompt, allowing you to specify a path within the archive to use for the import asset. The specified path should provide a Raw SQL Dump (.sql). In the following example, the database we want to import is named data.sql and resides at the top-level of the archive:

➜  ddev import-db
Provide the path to the database you wish to import.
Import path:
~/Downloads/site-backup.tar.gz
You provided an archive. Do you want to extract from a specific path in your archive? You may leave this blank if you wish to use the full archive contents
Archive extraction path:
data.sql
Importing database...
A settings file already exists for your application, so ddev did not generate one.
Run 'ddev describe' to find the database credentials for this application.
Successfully imported database for drupal8

Non-interactive usage

If you want to use import-db without answering prompts, you can use the --src flag to provide the path to the import asset. If you are importing an archive, and wish to specify the path within the archive to extract, you can use the --extract-path flag in conjunction with the --src flag. Examples:

ddev import-db --src=/tmp/mydb.sql.gz
gzip -dc /tmp/mydb.sql.gz | ddev import-db
ddev import-db <mydb.sql

Database import notes

• Importing from a dumpfile via stdin will not show progress because there's no way the import can know how far along through the import it has progressed.
• Use ddev import-db --target-db <some_database> to import to a non-default database (other than the default "db" database). This will create the database if it doesn't exist already.
• Use ddev import-db --no-drop to import without first emptying the database.
• If a database already exists and the import does not specify dropping tables, the contents of the imported dumpfile will be added to the database. Most full database dumps do a table drop and create before loading, but if yours does not, you can drop all tables with ddev stop --remove-data before importing.

Exporting a Database

You can export a database with ddev export-db, which outputs to stdout or with options to a file:

ddev export-db --file /tmp/db.sql.gz
ddev export-db >/tmp/db.sql.gz
ddev export-db --gzip=false >/tmp/db.sql

Importing static file assets

To import static file assets for a project, such as uploaded images and documents, use the command ddev import-files. This command will prompt you to specify the location of your import asset, then import the assets into the project's upload directory. To define a custom upload directory, set the upload_dir key in your project's config.yaml. If no custom upload directory is defined, the a default will be used:

• For Drupal projects, this is the sites/default/files directory.
• For WordPress projects, this is the wp-content/uploads directory.
• For TYPO3 projects, this is the fileadmin directory.
• For Backdrop projects, this is the files .
• For Magento 1 projects, this is the media directory.
• For Magento 2 projects, this is the pub/media directory.

➜  ddev import-files
Provide the path to the directory or archive you wish to import. Please note, if the destination directory exists, it will be replaced with the import assets specified here.
Import path:
~/Downloads/files.tar.gz
Successfully imported files for drupal8

Supported file types

Static asset import supports the following file types:

• A directory containing static assets
• (Gzipped) Tarball Archive (.tar, .tar.gz, .tgz)
• Zip Archive (.zip)

If a Tarball Archive or Zip Archive is provided for the import, you will be provided an additional prompt, allowing you to specify a path within the archive to use for the import asset. In the following example, the assets we want to import reside at "web/sites/default/files":

➜  ddev import-files
Provide the path to the directory or archive you wish to import. Please note, if the destination directory exists, it will be replaced with the import assets specified here.
Import path:
~/Downloads/site-backup.tar.gz
You provided an archive. Do you want to extract from a specific path in your archive? You may leave this blank if you wish to use the full archive contents
Archive extraction path:
web/sites/default/files
Successfully imported files for drupal8

Non-interactive usage

If you want to use import-files without answering prompts, you can use the --src flag to provide the path to the import asset. If you are importing an archive, and wish to specify the path within the archive to extract, you can use the --extract-path flag in conjunction with the --src flag. Example:

ddev import-files --src=/tmp/files.tgz

Snapshotting and restoring a database

The project database is stored in a docker volume, but can be snapshotted (and later restored) with the ddev snapshot command. A snapshot is automatically taken when you do a ddev stop --remove-data. For example:

$ ddev snapshot
Creating database snapshot d8git_20180801132403
Created database snapshot d8git_20180801132403 in /Users/rfay/workspace/d8git/.ddev/db_snapshots/d8git_20180801132403
Created snapshot d8git_20180801132403
rfay@rfay-mbp-2017:~/workspace/d8git$ ddev restore-snapshot d8git_20180801132403
...

$ ddev restore-snapshot d8git_20180801132403
...
Restored database snapshot: /Users/rfay/workspace/d8git/.ddev/db_snapshots/d8git_20180801132403

Snapshots are stored in the project's .ddev/db_snapshots directory, and the directory can be renamed as necessary. For example, if you rename the above d8git_20180801132403 directory to "working_before_migration", then you can use ddev restore-snapshot working_before_migration.

Interacting with your project

ddev provides several commands to facilitate interacting with your project in the development environment. These commands can be run within the working directory of your project while the project is running in ddev.

Executing Commands in Containers

The ddev exec command allows you to run shell commands in the container for a ddev service. By default, commands are executed on the web service container, in the docroot path of your project. This allows you to use the developer tools included in the web container. For example, to run the Drush CLI in the web container, you would run ddev exec drush status.

To run a shell command in the container for a different service, use the --service flag at the beginning of your exec command to specify the service the command should be run against. For example, to run the mysql client in the database, container, you would run ddev exec --service db mysql. To specify the directory in which a shell command will be run, use the --dir flag. For example, to see the contents of the /usr/bin directory, you would run ddev exec --dir /usr/bin ls.

To run privileged commands, sudo can be passed into ddev exec. For example, to update the container's apt package lists, use ddev exec sudo apt-get update.

Commands can also be executed using the shorter ddev . <cmd> alias.

SSH Into Containers

The ddev ssh command will open an interactive bash or sh shell session to the container for a ddev service. The web service is connected to by default. The session can be ended by typing exit. To connect to another service, use the --service flag to specify the service you want to connect to. For example, to connect to the database container, you would run ddev ssh --service db. To specify the destination directory, use the --dir flag. For example, to connect to the database container and be placed into the /home directory, you would run ddev ssh --service db --dir /home.

If you want to use your personal ssh keys within the web container, that's possible. Use ddev auth ssh to add the keys from your ~/.ssh directory and provide a passphrase, and then those keys will be usable from within the web container. You generally only have to ddev auth ssh one time per computer reboot.

Log Access

The ddev logs command allows you to easily view error logs from the web container (both nginx/apache and php-fpm logs are concatenated). To follow the log (watch the lines in real time), run ddev logs -f. When you are done, press CTRL+C to exit from the log trail. Similarly, ddev logs -s db will show logs from a running or stopped db container.

Stopping a project

To remove a project's containers run ddev stop in the working directory of the project. To remove any running project's containers, providing the project name as an argument, e.g. ddev stop <projectname>.

ddev stop is not destructive. It removes the docker containers but does not remove the database for the project, and does nothing to your codebase. This allows you to have many configured projects with databases loaded without wasting docker containers on unused projects. ddev stop does not affect the project code base and files.

To remove the imported database for a project, use the flag --remove-data, as in ddev stop --remove-data. This command will destroy both the containers and the imported database contents.

ddev Command Auto-Completion

Bash auto-completion is available for ddev. Bash auto-completion is included in the homebrew install on macOS and Linux. For other platforms, download the latest ddev release tarball and locate ddev_bash_completion.sh inside it. This can be installed wherever your bash_completions.d is. For example, cp ddev_bash_completion.sh /etc/bash_completion.d/ddev.

Opt-In Usage Information

When you start ddev for the first time (or install a new release) you'll be asked to decide whether to opt-in to send usage and error information to the developers. You can change this at any time by editing the ~/.ddev/global_config.yaml file.

If you do choose to send the diagnostics it helps us tremendously in our effort to improve this tool. What information gets sent? Here's an example of what we might see:

Of course if you have any reservations about this, please just opt-out (ddev config global --instrumentation-opt-in=false). If you have any problems or concerns with it, we'd like to know.

Using ddev offline, and top-level-domain options

DDEV-Local attempts to make offline use work as well as possible, and you really shouldn't have to do anything to make it work:

• It doesn't attempt instrumentation or update reporting if offline
• It uses /etc/hosts entries instead of DNS resolution if DNS resolution fails

However, it does not (yet) attempt to prevent docker pulls if a new docker image is required, so you'll want to make sure that you try a ddev start before going offline to make sure everything has been pulled.

If youy have a project running when you're online (using DNS for name resolution) and you then go offline, you'll want to do a ddev restart to get the hostname added into /etc/hosts for name resolution.

Note that DNS name resolution never works with Docker Toolbox on Windows unless you run your own DNS server.

You have general options as well:

In .ddev/config.yaml use_dns_when_possible: false will make ddev never try to use DNS for resolution, instead adding hostnames to /etc/hosts. You can also use ddev config --use-dns-when-possible=false to set this configuration option. In .ddev/config.yaml project_tld: example.com (or any other domain) can set ddev to use a project that could never be looked up in DNS. You can also use ddev config --project-tld=example.com

You can slso set up a local DNS server like dnsmasq (Linux and macOS, brew install dnsmasq) or (unbound or many others on Windows) in your own host environment that serves the project_tld that you choose, and DNS resolution will work just fine. You'll likely want a wildcard A record pointing to 127.0.0.1 (on most ddev installations) or the Docker Toolbox IP address (often 192.168.99.100)