Docker Multi-Stage Builds: Shrink Your Images by 90%

Most Docker images for Node.js applications are unnecessarily large. A typical node:18 based image can be 1GB+, but your production image can be under 100MB with multi-stage builds.

The key principle: separate your build environment from your runtime environment. Your build stage needs dev dependencies, compilers, and build tools. Your runtime stage only needs the compiled output and production dependencies.

Pattern 1: Builder + Runner Pattern 2: Builder + Distroless Pattern 3: Builder + Alpine with security scanning