Docker

Core Principles

1. Multi-stage builds always — Separate build and runtime stages. Build in the SDK image, run in the ASP.NET runtime image.
2. Non-root by default — .NET container images support USER app by default since .NET 8. Never run as root in production.
3. Layer caching matters — Copy .csproj files and restore before copying source code. This caches NuGet dependencies across builds.
4. Health checks in the container — Use HEALTHCHECK in Dockerfile or configure in Docker Compose / orchestrator.

Patterns

Multi-Stage Dockerfile for Web API

# Stage 1: Build
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:10.0 AS build
WORKDIR /src

# Copy project files and restore (cached layer)
COPY ["src/MyApp.Api/MyApp.Api.csproj", "src/MyApp.Api/"]
COPY ["src/MyApp.Domain/MyApp.Domain.csproj", "src/MyApp.Domain/"]
COPY ["Directory.Build.props", "."]
COPY ["Directory.Packages.props", "."]
RUN dotnet restore "src/MyApp.Api/MyApp.Api.csproj"

# Copy everything and build
COPY . .
RUN dotnet publish "src/MyApp.Api/MyApp.Api.csproj" \
    -c Release \
    -o /app/publish \
    --no-restore

# Stage 2: Runtime
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0 AS runtime
WORKDIR /app

# Non-root user (default in .NET 8+ images)
USER app

COPY --from=build /app/publish .

EXPOSE 8080
HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=3s --start-period=10s --retries=3 \
    CMD ["dotnet", "MyApp.Api.dll", "--urls", "http://localhost:8080/health/live"]

ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "MyApp.Api.dll"]

.dockerignore

**/.git
**/.vs
**/bin
**/obj
**/node_modules
**/Dockerfile*
**/docker-compose*
**/tests

Docker Compose for Local Development

Key .NET-specific concerns — pass connection strings via environment, use depends_on with health checks:

services:
  api:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: src/MyApp.Api/Dockerfile
    ports:
      - "5000:8080"
    environment:
      - ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Development
      - ConnectionStrings__Default=Host=postgres;Database=myapp;Username=postgres;Password=postgres
      - ConnectionStrings__Redis=redis:6379
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
  # Add postgres/redis services with healthcheck — standard boilerplate

Optimized Build with .slnx

For solutions with multiple projects, restore only the necessary projects.

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:10.0 AS build
WORKDIR /src

# Copy solution and all project files
COPY *.slnx .
COPY Directory.Build.props .
COPY Directory.Packages.props .
COPY src/**/*.csproj ./src/

# Restore project structure
RUN for file in src/**/*.csproj; do \
    mkdir -p $(dirname $file) && mv $file $(dirname $file)/; \
    done
RUN dotnet restore

COPY . .
RUN dotnet publish src/MyApp.Api -c Release -o /app/publish --no-restore

Health Check Endpoint

// In Program.cs — lightweight health endpoint for Docker
app.MapGet("/health/live", () => Results.Ok("healthy"))
    .ExcludeFromDescription();

Anti-patterns

Don't Use SDK Image for Runtime

# BAD — SDK image is 900MB+, includes compilers
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:10.0
COPY . .
RUN dotnet run

# GOOD — separate build and runtime, runtime image is ~200MB
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0

Don't Copy Everything Before Restore

# BAD — any source change invalidates the NuGet cache
COPY . .
RUN dotnet restore

# GOOD — copy only project files first, then restore
COPY ["src/MyApp.Api/MyApp.Api.csproj", "src/MyApp.Api/"]
RUN dotnet restore "src/MyApp.Api/MyApp.Api.csproj"
COPY . .

Don't Run as Root

# BAD — running as root (security risk)
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0
COPY --from=build /app .
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "MyApp.Api.dll"]

# GOOD — use the built-in non-root user
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0
USER app
COPY --from=build /app .
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "MyApp.Api.dll"]

Decision Guide

Scenario	Recommendation
Web API container	Multi-stage build with aspnet runtime image
Worker service	Multi-stage build with dotnet/runtime image
Local development	Docker Compose with service dependencies
CI builds	Multi-stage build (self-contained)
Image size optimization	Use Alpine variant + trimming for small images
Health monitoring	HEALTHCHECK instruction + /health endpoint
Secrets	Environment variables or mounted secrets, never in image