Having Docker access External files

It sounds like mounting a host directory in the container is what you're looking for. You won't have to restart the container to pick up changes to the mounted directory. Link to relevant docs.

I solved the same problem with below commands

docker run  --mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)"/data,target=/home/data -it <name_of_container>

Note "-it conainter_name" should be the last flags.