docker - unable to change directory of volume - docker

Question

I have had no luck with searching for a solution to this.
I have 2 docker containers. frontend, and api. Both need a folder and its contents models to build.
All of these files live in a folder named Website, so the tree would look like:
Website:
-models
-api
-dockerfile
-frontend
-dockerfile
-docker-compose.yml
I am very new to docker, and believe this is how this should be setup, my dockerfile inside of the api directory is like so:
FROM node:latest
RUN mkdir -p /usr/src/app/models
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
COPY ./api/package*.json ./
RUN npm install
COPY ./api/ /usr/src/app
EXPOSE 3000
EXPOSE 3001
CMD [ "npm", "start" ]
This results in 2 models folders being created in side of the docker container, one containing no files located at path (this is where I want my contents):
root#0aa4496c9077:/usr/src/app/models#
and another folder that contains the content that I want it to have, however it is located at:
root#0aa4496c9077:/usr/src/app/src/models#
My question is: how do I map the folder and contents from the Website directory, to the docker container directory /usr/src/app/models?
my actual docker-compose.yml file is as so:
version: "3"
services:
api:
container_name: api
restart: always
build:
context: ./
dockerfile: ./api/dockerfile
ports:
- "3000:3000"
- "3001:3001"
volumes:
- ./models:./models
links:
- mongo
I have attempted changing the volumes path to be absolute, such as:
volumes:
- $PWD/models:/usr/src/app/models
with no luck :(
The build output of running docker-compose build is:
mongo uses an image, skipping
Building api
Step 1/8 : FROM node:latest
latest: Pulling from library/node
Digest: sha256:521df806339e2e60dfdee6e00e75656e69798c141bd2cff88c0c9a9c50ad4de5
Status: Downloaded newer image for node:latest
---> 4495f296c63b
Step 2/8 : WORKDIR /usr/src/app
---> Using cache
---> 94f87a509559
Step 3/8 : COPY ./api/package*.json ./
---> Using cache
---> 3c2e8c17ebf5
Step 4/8 : RUN npm install
---> Using cache
---> 90dc7d21af18
Step 5/8 : COPY ./api/ /usr/src/app
---> 5fa3a2b219ef
Step 6/8 : EXPOSE 3000
---> Running in 6ad5fbea1ed8
Removing intermediate container 6ad5fbea1ed8
---> b2f8f2f9129c
Step 7/8 : EXPOSE 3001
---> Running in 2342665c8da3
Removing intermediate container 2342665c8da3
---> 9f1162670b55
Step 8/8 : CMD [ "npm", "start" ]
---> Running in fc9d766bd5c1
Removing intermediate container fc9d766bd5c1
---> a7267b99b3c2
Successfully built a7267b99b3c2
Successfully tagged website_api:latest
Thank you very much for any help

Answer 1

Use ./models:./models without $PWD , and it's supposed to work.
./modelsis interpreted as relative to the location of the Compose file.
No need to supply absolute path, just relative path and docker-compose will figure it out.