diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4af1ee75
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+# Ignore git related files
+.github/
+.gitignore
+
+# Ignore folders not necessary for the docker image
+docs/
+tests/
+
+# Ignore venv if any
+venv/
+
+# Ignore files not necessary for the docker image
+CONTRIBUTING.md
+*.png
+*.json
+LICENSE
+Makefile
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index e916fb19..84b7a1e9 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,35 +1,51 @@
 ARG PY_VERSION=3.12
+
+#---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Stage 1 → Builder image
+#---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 FROM python:$PY_VERSION-slim AS build-env
 
 ARG VERSION
-
 WORKDIR /app
 
 # Install python deps
-RUN python -m pip install --upgrade poetry wheel twine
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends build-essential \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+RUN python -m pip install --no-cache-dir --upgrade poetry wheel twine
 
 # Install project deps
-COPY pyproject.toml .
-RUN poetry install --with dev
+COPY pyproject.toml poetry.lock ./
+RUN poetry install --with dev --no-root
 
 # Copy code *after* installing deps to avoid unnecessarily invalidating cache
 COPY . .
 
+# Build the project
 RUN poetry build
-RUN PROJECT_VERSION=$(poetry version -s) && cp /app/dist/boaviztapi-$PROJECT_VERSION.tar.gz ./boaviztapi-$VERSION.tar.gz
-RUN pip install boaviztapi-$VERSION.tar.gz && cp $(which uvicorn) /app
+RUN PROJECT_VERSION=$(poetry version -s) && \
+    cp /app/dist/boaviztapi-$PROJECT_VERSION.tar.gz ./boaviztapi-$VERSION.tar.gz
 
+#---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Stage 2 → Runtime image
+#---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 FROM python:$PY_VERSION-slim AS run-env
 # Python 3 surrogate unicode handling
 # @see https://click.palletsprojects.com/en/7.x/python3/
-ENV LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
-ENV LANG=C.UTF-8
-
-COPY --from=build-env /app /app
-COPY --from=build-env /usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages /usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages
-ENV PYTHONPATH=/usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages
+ENV LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 \
+    LANG=C.UTF-8
 
+ARG VERSION
 WORKDIR /app
 
+# Copy executable and dependencies
+COPY --from=build-env /app/boaviztapi-$VERSION.tar.gz /app/
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir /app/boaviztapi-$VERSION.tar.gz
+
+# Required in main.py
+COPY --from=build-env /app/pyproject.toml /usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages/boaviztapi/
+
+# Copy uvicorn executable
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir uvicorn
+
 EXPOSE 5000
-CMD ["./uvicorn", "boaviztapi.main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "5000"]
+CMD ["uvicorn", "boaviztapi.main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "5000"]
diff --git a/boaviztapi/main.py b/boaviztapi/main.py
index 6d0f7b2c..6c2cca9f 100644
--- a/boaviztapi/main.py
+++ b/boaviztapi/main.py
@@ -27,13 +27,27 @@
 
 from fastapi.responses import HTMLResponse
 
+def get_version_from_pyproject():
+    # List of potential locations for the pyproject.toml file
+    potential_paths = [
+        os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '../pyproject.toml'),
+        os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'pyproject.toml'),
+    ]
+
+    for path in potential_paths:
+        if os.path.exists(path):
+            with open(path, 'r') as f:
+                return toml.loads(f.read())['tool']['poetry']['version']
+
+    # Raise an error if the file is not found in any of the locations
+    raise FileNotFoundError("pyproject.toml not found in expected locations")
+
 # Serverless frameworks adds a 'stage' prefix to the route used to serve applications
 # We have to manage it to expose openapi doc on aws and generate proper links.
 stage = os.environ.get('STAGE', None)
 openapi_prefix = f"/{stage}" if stage else "/"
 app = FastAPI(root_path=openapi_prefix)  # Here is the magic
-version = toml.loads(open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '../pyproject.toml'), 'r').read())['tool']['poetry'][
-    'version']
+version = get_version_from_pyproject()
 _logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 origins = json.loads(os.getenv("ALLOWED_ORIGINS", '["*"]'))