diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb10925
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+# Prevent local build artifacts from leaking into Docker
+target/
+data/
+*.db
+
+# IDE
+.idea/
+.vscode/
+
+# OS
+.DS_Store
diff --git a/src/main/docker/Dockerfile.jvm b/src/main/docker/Dockerfile.jvm
index a0c09ab..c04c628 100644
--- a/src/main/docker/Dockerfile.jvm
+++ b/src/main/docker/Dockerfile.jvm
@@ -1,9 +1,24 @@
+# DiscDrop — Quarkus multi-stage build
+
+# ─── 1. Build ─────────────────────────────────────
+FROM maven:3-eclipse-temurin-21-alpine AS build
+WORKDIR /build
+COPY pom.xml ./
+RUN mvn dependency:go-offline -q 2>/dev/null || true
+COPY src ./src
+RUN mvn package -q -DskipTests
+
+# ─── 2. Runtime ───────────────────────────────────
 FROM eclipse-temurin:21-jre-alpine
 WORKDIR /app
 RUN apk add --no-cache sqlite
-COPY target/quarkus-app/ /app/
+COPY --from=build /build/target/quarkus-app/ /app/
 EXPOSE 8080
+
+VOLUME /app/data
+
 ENV DISC_DROP_DB_PATH=/app/data/discdrop.db
 ENV DISC_DROP_CACHE_TTL=8
 ENV DISC_DROP_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080
-ENTRYPOINT ["java", "-jar", "/app/quarkus-run.jar"]
+
+ENTRYPOINT ["java", "-XX:MinHeapFreeRatio=10", "-XX:MaxHeapFreeRatio=20", "-jar", "/app/quarkus-run.jar"]