What are Multi-Stage Builds?

Multi-Stage Builds allow you to use multiple FROM statements in a single Dockerfile. Only the final stage is used as the output image — keeping the final image small and clean.

Why Use Multi-Stage Builds?

• Produce smaller production images (without build tools)
• Keep development tools out of the final image
• Improve security by reducing attack surface

Example 1: Node.js App

# Stage 1: Build
FROM node:18-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json .
RUN npm install
COPY . .
RUN npm run build

# Stage 2: Production
FROM node:18-alpine AS production
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=builder /app/dist ./dist
COPY --from=builder /app/package.json .
RUN npm install --production
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "dist/index.js"]

docker build -t my-node-prod .

Example 2: Go App

# Stage 1: Build Go binary
FROM golang:1.21 AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .
RUN go build -o myapp .

# Stage 2: Minimal runtime
FROM alpine:latest
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=builder /app/myapp .
EXPOSE 8080
CMD ["./myapp"]

Final image is just a few MBs — no Go compiler included.

Example 3: PHP Laravel

# Stage 1: Composer dependencies
FROM composer:2 AS composer-build
WORKDIR /app
COPY composer.json composer.lock ./
RUN composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

# Stage 2: Final image
FROM php:8.2-fpm-alpine
WORKDIR /var/www/html
COPY --from=composer-build /app/vendor ./vendor
COPY . .
EXPOSE 9000
CMD ["php-fpm"]

Comparing Image Sizes

docker build -t app-fat .
docker build -t app-slim -f Dockerfile.multistage .
docker images | grep app

Output:

app-fat    latest   900MB
app-slim   latest   85MB

Key Syntax

Summary

• Multi-stage builds use multiple FROM statements in one Dockerfile
• Only the final stage is included in the output image
• Results in smaller, more secure production images
• Use COPY --from=stagename to transfer artifacts between stages