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Best practice Dockerfile for Python with uv

Below is an example Dockerfile that we use and recommend at Depot when we are building Docker images for Python applications that use uv as their package manager.

FROM python:3.12-slim-bookworm AS base
 
FROM base AS builder
COPY --from=ghcr.io/astral-sh/uv:0.4.9 /uv /bin/uv
ENV UV_COMPILE_BYTECODE=1 UV_LINK_MODE=copy
WORKDIR /app
COPY uv.lock pyproject.toml /app/
RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/uv \
  uv sync --frozen --no-install-project --no-dev
COPY . /app
RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/uv \
  uv sync --frozen --no-dev
 
 
FROM base
COPY --from=builder /app /app
ENV PATH="/app/.venv/bin:$PATH"
EXPOSE 8000
CMD ["uvicorn", "uv_docker_example:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"]

Explanation of the Dockerfile

Using a multi-stage build, we can separate our build from our deployment, taking full advantage of Docker's layer caching to speed up our builds and produce a smaller final image.

Stage 1: FROM python:3.12-slim-bookworm AS base

FROM python:3.12-slim-bookworm AS base

For optimal caching, we use the same base image for all of our stages. This ensures compatibility between the build and deployment stages and allows us to take advantage of Docker's layer caching to produce fewer layers in the build. An -alpine image can also be used for an even smaller final image, but some projects may require additional dependencies to be installed.

Stage 2: FROM base AS builder

COPY --from=ghcr.io/astral-sh/uv:0.4.9 /uv /bin/uv
ENV UV_COMPILE_BYTECODE=1 UV_LINK_MODE=copy

In the builder we copy in the uv binary from the official UV image at a specific version tag.

UV_COMPILE_BYTECODE=1 tells uv to compile Python files to .pyc bytecode files. This takes a little longer to install (part of the build process), but often speeds up the application's startup time in the container.

UV_LINK_MODE=copy tells uv to copy the Python files into the container from the cache mount, resolving any issues from symlinks.

WORKDIR /app
COPY uv.lock pyproject.toml /app/
RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/uv \
  uv sync --frozen --no-install-project --no-dev

After setting the working directory, we copy in only the uv.lock and pyproject.toml files to the /app directory and run uv sync to install the dependencies. This allows us to take advantage of Docker's layer caching to cache the dependencies, which change less often, before copying in the rest of the application code.

COPY . /app
RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/uv \
  uv sync --frozen --no-dev

After the dependencies are installed and the layer is cached, we copy in the rest of the application code and run uv sync again, without the --no-install-project flag, to install the application. If the application source code changes, this layer will be invalidated, but the dependencies will not need to be reinstalled.

Stage 3: FROM base (Final stage)

FROM base
COPY --from=builder /app /app
ENV PATH="/app/.venv/bin:$PATH"

The final stage starts from our minimal base image and copies in the /app directory from the builder stage. In this case, we set the PATH environment variable to include the virtual environment's bin directory so that we can run the application without specifying the full path to the uvicorn executable.

EXPOSE 8000
CMD ["uvicorn", "uv_docker_example:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"]

After copying in your application, you can expose whichever port your application listens on and set the default command to run your application. In this case, we are running a uvicorn application on port 8000.

References