Docker Development

Dockerfile Best Practices

• Multi-stage builds (separate build and runtime)
• Minimal base images (alpine when possible)
• Non-root user inside container
• .dockerignore for node_modules, .git, etc
• Layer caching: COPY package*.json first, then npm install, then COPY code

Docker Compose

• Named volumes for persistent data
• Environment variables via .env file
• Health checks for dependencies
• Restart policies (unless-stopped)
• Network isolation between services