Docker Best Practices

Dockerfile

• Use specific base image tags (not :latest)
• Use multi-stage builds for smaller images
• Minimize layers (combine RUN commands)
• Copy package.json first for caching
• Run as non-root user
• Use .dockerignore

Example Multi-stage Build

FROM node:20-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build