What is a multi-stage Docker build?

Multi-stage builds use multiple FROM statements in a Dockerfile. The build stage installs dependencies and compiles code, then only the final artifacts are copied to a minimal runtime image. This dramatically reduces image size and attack surface.

Which base image variant should I choose?

Alpine (~5MB) is smallest but uses musl libc which can cause compatibility issues. Slim (~80MB) is Debian-based and widely compatible. Bookworm (~120MB) is the full Debian image with everything included. Use Alpine for Go/Rust, Slim for Node/Python.

🐳 Docker

Dockerfile Boilerplate Generator

Generate production-ready Dockerfiles with multi-stage builds, non-root users, health checks and Docker security best practices — for Node.js, Python, Go, Java, Rust, Ruby, PHP and more.

Choose Stack

Options

Multi-stage buildSeparate build and runtime stages for a smaller final image

Non-root userRun as an unprivileged user for better security

Health checkAdd HEALTHCHECK for container orchestration readiness

OCI labelsAdd standard OCI image metadata labels

CommentsInclude explanatory comments in the Dockerfile

.dockerignoreGenerate a matching .dockerignore file

Port

Base Image Variant

📄 Generated Dockerfile

Best practice: Always pin your base image to a specific digest in production (e.g. node:20-alpine@sha256:...) to ensure reproducible builds. Use docker scout or trivy to scan images for vulnerabilities before deployment.

📖 How to Use This Tool

▼

Click a stack: Node.js, Python, Go, Java, etc.

Toggle: multi-stage, non-root, health check, labels

Set port and base image variant

Download Dockerfile and .dockerignore

📝 Examples

Node.js

Input: Multi-stage + Non-root

Output: FROM node:20-alpine AS builder