diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index e5623e8..f4dc6e7 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,42 +1,11 @@
 # syntax=docker/dockerfile:1.6
 
 ############################
-# Stage 0: Frontend (Vite)
+# Stage 1: PHP (Composer)  #
 ############################
-ARG FRONTEND_DIR=.
-FROM node:20-alpine AS nodebuild
-ARG FRONTEND_DIR
-WORKDIR /app
-
-# Toolchain for native node deps (safe to have)
-RUN apk add --no-cache python3 make g++
-
-# Copy manifests (the path MUST exist; set FRONTEND_DIR correctly)
-COPY ${FRONTEND_DIR}/package.json /app/package.json
-# Copy one of the lockfiles if it exists (copy-all-then-use is simpler than conditional COPY)
-# If you use pnpm or yarn, keep the right lockfile in the same directory as package.json.
-COPY ${FRONTEND_DIR}/package-lock.json /app/package-lock.json
-# If you don't have a package-lock.json, comment the line above and uncomment one of these:
-# COPY ${FRONTEND_DIR}/pnpm-lock.yaml /app/pnpm-lock.yaml
-# COPY ${FRONTEND_DIR}/yarn.lock /app/yarn.lock
-
-# Install deps (choose installer based on the lockfile you actually copied)
-RUN if [ -f package-lock.json ]; then npm ci; \
-    elif [ -f pnpm-lock.yaml ]; then corepack enable && pnpm i --frozen-lockfile; \
-    elif [ -f yarn.lock ]; then yarn install --frozen-lockfile; \
-    else npm i; fi
-
-# Copy the rest of the frontend sources and build
-COPY ${FRONTEND_DIR}/ /app/
-ENV NODE_ENV=production
-# If your package.json has "build": "vite build" (Laravel default with laravel-vite-plugin), this works:
-RUN npm run build
-
-############################
-# Stage 1: PHP composer
-############################
-FROM php:8.4-fpm-alpine AS build
+FROM php:8.4-fpm-alpine AS phpbuild
 
+# Build deps for PHP extensions + composer
 RUN set -eux; \
     apk add --no-cache \
       git unzip \
@@ -53,13 +22,38 @@ ENV COMPOSER_ALLOW_SUPERUSER=1 COMPOSER_HOME=/tmp/composer
 COPY --from=composer:2 /usr/bin/composer /usr/local/bin/composer
 
 WORKDIR /app
+# Install PHP deps first for better layer caching
 COPY composer.json composer.lock ./
 RUN composer install --no-dev --no-interaction --prefer-dist --optimize-autoloader --no-scripts
+
+# Copy full app source (now vendor/ exists for later stages)
 COPY . .
 
 ############################
-# Stage 2: Runtime (nginx+php-fpm)
+# Stage 2: Frontend (Vite) #
 ############################
+FROM node:20-alpine AS nodebuild
+WORKDIR /app
+
+# Bring in the **already-composed** app (includes vendor/)
+COPY --from=phpbuild /app /app
+
+# Native build tools in case any npm deps need them
+RUN apk add --no-cache python3 make g++
+
+# JS deps & build (Laravel default expects package.json at repo root)
+RUN if [ -f package-lock.json ]; then npm ci; \
+    elif [ -f pnpm-lock.yaml ]; then corepack enable && pnpm i --frozen-lockfile; \
+    elif [ -f yarn.lock ]; then yarn install --frozen-lockfile; \
+    else npm i; fi
+
+ENV NODE_ENV=production
+# Standard Laravel: "build": "vite build"
+RUN npm run build
+
+#####################################
+# Stage 3: Runtime (nginx + php-fpm)#
+#####################################
 FROM php:8.4-fpm-alpine
 
 # Base runtime packages
@@ -68,7 +62,7 @@ RUN set -eux; \
       nginx supervisor curl \
       libzip icu-libs
 
-# Build PHP runtime extensions and install libpq runtime for pdo_pgsql/pgsql
+# Build PHP runtime extensions and install libpq (needed by pdo_pgsql/pgsql)
 RUN set -eux; \
     apk add --no-cache libzip-dev icu-dev oniguruma-dev postgresql-dev; \
     docker-php-ext-configure zip; \
@@ -89,19 +83,15 @@ RUN set -eux; \
       echo "realpath_cache_ttl=600"; \
     } >> "$PHP_INI_DIR/conf.d/99-opcache.ini"
 
-# PHP-FPM: pass env, listen TCP, run as nginx
+# Configure PHP-FPM: pass env, listen TCP, run as nginx
 RUN set -eux; \
     sed -ri 's|^;?clear_env\s*=.*|clear_env = no|g' /usr/local/etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf; \
     sed -ri 's|^listen = .*|listen = 127.0.0.1:9000|g' /usr/local/etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf; \
     sed -ri 's|^user\s*=.*|user = nginx|g' /usr/local/etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf; \
     sed -ri 's|^group\s*=.*|group = nginx|g' /usr/local/etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf; \
-    { \
-      echo "ping.path = /ping"; \
-      echo "pm.status_path = /status"; \
-      echo "catch_workers_output = yes"; \
-    } >> /usr/local/etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf
+    { echo "ping.path = /ping"; echo "pm.status_path = /status"; echo "catch_workers_output = yes"; } >> /usr/local/etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf
 
-# Create dirs
+# Directories
 RUN set -eux; \
     mkdir -p /run/nginx /var/log/nginx /var/log/supervisor \
              /etc/nginx/conf.d /var/www/html \
@@ -110,12 +100,12 @@ RUN set -eux; \
 WORKDIR /var/www/html
 
 # App code from composer stage
-COPY --from=build --chown=nginx:nginx /app /var/www/html
+COPY --from=phpbuild --chown=nginx:nginx /app /var/www/html
 
-# Built frontend assets from node stage
+# Built frontend assets from node stage (public/build/** including manifest.json)
 COPY --from=nodebuild --chown=nginx:nginx /app/public/build /var/www/html/public/build
 
-# Nginx + Supervisor configs + health + entrypoint (these must exist in your repo)
+# Nginx + Supervisor configs + health + entrypoint (must exist in your repo)
 COPY ./docker/nginx.conf            /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
 COPY ./docker/site.conf             /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
 COPY ./docker/supervisord.conf      /etc/supervisord.conf
@@ -123,23 +113,26 @@ COPY ./docker/healthcheck.sh        /usr/local/bin/healthcheck.sh
 COPY ./docker/entrypoint.sh         /usr/local/bin/entrypoint.sh
 RUN chmod +x /usr/local/bin/healthcheck.sh /usr/local/bin/entrypoint.sh
 
-# Logs to STDOUT/ERR
+# Log to STDOUT/ERR
 RUN set -eux; \
     ln -sf /dev/stdout /var/log/nginx/access.log; \
     ln -sf /dev/stderr /var/log/nginx/error.log
 
-# Laravel writable dirs
+# Laravel writable dirs & permissions
 RUN set -eux; \
     mkdir -p storage/framework/{cache,sessions,views} storage/logs bootstrap/cache; \
     chown -R nginx:nginx storage bootstrap/cache \
           /var/cache/nginx /var/lib/nginx /run/nginx /var/log/nginx /var/log/supervisor; \
     chmod -R ug+rwX storage bootstrap/cache
 
-# Runtime env + port
+# Env + port
 ENV APP_ENV=production APP_DEBUG=false APP_URL=http://localhost APP_PORT=8080
 EXPOSE 8080
 
 HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=5s --retries=3 CMD ["/usr/local/bin/healthcheck.sh"]
 
+# Drop root
 USER nginx:nginx
+
+# Start services
 CMD ["/usr/bin/supervisord", "-c", "/etc/supervisord.conf"]