docker-guide

name	docker-guide
description	Docker container guidelines for production deployments. Apply when editing `Dockerfile`, `docker-compose.yml`, or `.dockerignore` files. Use for multi-stage builds, security hardening, image slimming. Keywords: Dockerfile, multi-stage, alpine/distroless, layer caching, non-root, secrets, health checks, BuildKit.

Docker Coding Guidelines

Essentials

• Build optimization - Multi-stage builds, small base images (alpine/distroless), see reference/multi-stage-builds.md
• Layer caching - Order layers for caching, copy lockfiles before source, see reference/layer-caching.md
• Security - Run as non-root, least privilege, no secrets in images, see reference/security.md
• Configuration - Externalize config via env/volumes, pin versions, see reference/production-config.md
• Quality - Use BuildKit and hadolint, add health endpoints, see reference/production-config.md

Progressive disclosure

• Read reference/multi-stage-builds.md - When creating production images or optimizing build process
• Read reference/layer-caching.md - When builds are slow or cache invalidates frequently
• Read reference/security.md - When hardening images or handling secrets
• Read reference/production-config.md - When adding health checks or configuring for orchestration
• Read reference/docker-compose.md - When defining multi-service local development environments