diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a4b189
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# Production container: only core debian and treebird FCGI deps
+FROM debian:testing
+
+RUN apt update && apt upgrade -y
+RUN apt install -y libcurl3-gnutls libfcgi0ldbl fcgiwrap
+
+WORKDIR treebird
+COPY treebird-fcgi /usr/local/bin/treebird
+
+CMD fcgiwrap -c 10 -f -s tcp:0.0.0.0:4008
diff --git a/build_container.sh b/build_container.sh
index a180b6b..5c73def 100755
--- a/build_container.sh
+++ b/build_container.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,32 @@
 #!/bin/sh
-# builds the 'build' image for compiling and testing
+# Builds both the 'build' and release containers. The build container is used to
+# compile the code and is kept independently so it can actually be run for testing
+# and debugging, but only the release image should be run on production servers.
+release=${1:-latest}
+outdir="treebird-${release}"
 
 git submodule init
 git submodule update
 
-docker build -t treebird:build -f Dockerfile.build .
+build_image="treebird:${release}-build"
+docker build -t "${build_image}" -f Dockerfile.build .
+
+[ $? -eq 0 ] || (exit 1 && echo build failed!)
+
+[ -d "${outdir}" ] || mkdir "${outdir}"
+
+static_files="/usr/local/share/treebird/dist/."
+fcgi_bin_pth="/usr/local/bin/treebird"
+
+docker run --rm --name "${outdir}-tmp" -d "${build_image}"
+docker cp "${outdir}-tmp:${static_files}" "${outdir}/"
+docker cp "${outdir}-tmp:${fcgi_bin_pth}" "${outdir}/"
+docker stop "${outdir}-tmp"
+
+[ $? -eq 0 ] || (exit 1 && echo failed to extract to outdir)
+
+cp "${outdir}/treebird" treebird-fcgi
+docker build -t "treebird:${release}" .
+rm treebird-fcgi
+
+[ $? -eq 0 ] || (exit 1 && echo failed to build release image)
diff --git a/nginx-test/build_container.sh b/nginx-test/build_container.sh
index ec918bd..9f28914 100755
--- a/nginx-test/build_container.sh
+++ b/nginx-test/build_container.sh
@@ -1,2 +1,10 @@
 #!/bin/sh
+# builds a quick improvised nginx container to run treebird locally
+release=${1:-latest}
+
+[ ! -d to-webserv ] || rm -vr to-webserv
+
+mkdir to-webserv
+cp -r "../treebird-${release}/." to-webserv
+
 docker build -t treebird-nginx-test .
diff --git a/run_container.sh b/run_container.sh
index 347a144..702efd6 100755
--- a/run_container.sh
+++ b/run_container.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,11 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 # runs the treebird image as a docker daemon
+instance=${1:-https://sleepy.cafe/}
+release=${2:-latest}
 
-docker run --rm --name treebird -p 4008:4008 -e TREEBIRD_CFG_INSTANCE_URL="https://sleepy.cafe/" -d treebird:build
+docker run \
+    --rm \
+    --name treebird \
+    -p 4008:4008 \
+    -e TREEBIRD_CFG_INSTANCE_URL="${instance}" \
+    -d "treebird:${release}"