Use "distroless" approach for web container to reduce image size from 2.44GB to 952MB

Author: TShapinsky

alfalfa_web/Dockerfile

@@ -27,3 +27,9 @@ WORKDIR /srv/alfalfa
 
 # Run in watch mode so it will automatically restart
 CMD [ "npm", "run", "watch" ]
+
+FROM gcr.io/distroless/nodejs22-debian12:latest as production
+COPY --from=base /srv/alfalfa /srv/alfalfa
+WORKDIR /srv/alfalfa
+
+CMD [ "build/index.js" ]

docker-compose.yml

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ services:
       # is to utilize shared code, specifically in db
       dockerfile: alfalfa_web/Dockerfile
       context: .
-      target: base
+      target: production
       args:
         - NODE_ENV
     image: ${REGISTRY_BASE_URI}/web:${VERSION_TAG}