Next.js Docker Deployment Boilerplate

Containerized Next.js for predictable deploys

Build once, run anywhere. This boilerplate ships a minimal multi‑stage Dockerfile, health checks, environment config, and CI‑ready defaults for reliable releases.

What’s included

• Multi‑stage Dockerfile with small runtime image
• Cache‑aware builds and reproducible installs
• Health checks and graceful shutdown hooks
• Env & secrets patterns for staging/production
• CI/CD examples for fast, incremental deploys

Quick start

Best practices

• Use distroless or alpine images; run as a non‑root user.
• Keep images lean: prune dev deps and build caches.
• Pass secrets via platform‑specific secret managers.

Targets

• AWS ECS/Fargate for managed containers
• Kubernetes with HPA and rolling updates
• Fly.io/Render for simple global deploys

Architecture

Use a multi‑stage Dockerfile: builder image for installing deps and compiling, and a minimal runtime image for execution. Copy only the compiled output and production dependencies to keep images small.

• Stage 1: dependency install with frozen lockfile
• Stage 2: build Next.js and generate standalone output
• Stage 3: runtime with non‑root user and healthcheck

Security & compliance

• Run as an unprivileged user; drop Linux capabilities you don’t need.
• Scan images for CVEs in CI and fail on critical issues.
• Use read‑only root filesystem and mount writable dirs explicitly.
• Keep secrets out of images; inject at runtime via secret stores.

Observability & ops

• Emit JSON logs; include request IDs and version/commit metadata.
• Expose health and readiness endpoints for orchestrators.
• Add OpenTelemetry exporters if your platform supports it.
• Record image digests and link deploys to commits.

Performance & caching

• Leverage Docker layer caching for node_modules and build artifacts.
• Precompute Next.js cache during build for stable pages.
• Use a CDN and edge caching for static assets and ISR.

Troubleshooting