Multi-Stage Builds in Docker

From the Docker cheat sheet · Dockerfile · verified Jul 2026

Multi-Stage Builds

Use multiple FROM stages to create small, optimized production images

dockerfile

# Build stage
FROM node:22-alpine AS build
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build

# Production stage — only the output
FROM node:22-alpine AS production
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app/dist ./dist
COPY --from=build /app/node_modules ./node_modules
CMD ["node", "dist/server.js"]

💡 Multi-stage builds keep dev tools (compilers, build deps) out of the final image

⚡ Go apps can use FROM scratch for the final stage — just the binary, ~10MB total

📌 COPY --from=stagename copies files from a previous stage into the current one

🟢 Use --target to build a specific stage: docker build --target build .

multi-stagebuildoptimization

More Docker tasks

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