diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 9f1423c..95e0386 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,29 +1,49 @@
-# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
-FROM python:3.12-slim
+# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1.7
+
+# ============================================================================
+# Build stage: install Python dependencies into a dedicated prefix
+# ============================================================================
+FROM python:3.11-slim-bookworm AS builder
 
 ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
     PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
-    PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR=1
+    PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR=1 \
+    PIP_DISABLE_PIP_VERSION_CHECK=1
 
-# Non-root user (uid 1000 to match the run script)
-RUN useradd -m -u 1000 appuser
+# Install runtime deps into /install. --target keeps everything in one tree
+# so we can copy it cleanly to a distroless image without venv/shebang issues.
+RUN pip install --target=/install \
+      fastapi==0.115.* \
+      "uvicorn[standard]==0.30.*" \
+      redis==5.0.*
 
-WORKDIR /home/appuser/app
+# Pre-compile bytecode for faster cold start under a read-only rootfs
+RUN python -m compileall -q /install
 
-# (Optional) tini for proper signal handling
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends tini \
-  && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+# ============================================================================
+# Runtime stage: distroless Python 3.11, non-root, no shell
+# ============================================================================
+# gcr.io/distroless/python3-debian12 ships Python 3.11 with NO shell, NO
+# package manager, and NO setuid binaries. The :nonroot tag pins USER to
+# uid 65532 / gid 65532.
+FROM gcr.io/distroless/python3-debian12:nonroot
 
-# Runtime deps
-RUN pip install --no-cache-dir fastapi==0.115.* uvicorn[standard]==0.30.* redis==5.0.*
+ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
+    PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
+    PYTHONPATH=/app/lib
 
-# Copy your app
-COPY --chown=appuser:appuser app.py .
-COPY --chown=appuser:appuser favicon.ico .
+WORKDIR /app
 
-USER appuser
+# Site-packages first (rarely changes → maximises layer cache)
+COPY --from=builder --chown=nonroot:nonroot /install /app/lib
+
+# Application source (changes most often → its own layer)
+COPY --chown=nonroot:nonroot app.py favicon.ico /app/
+
+USER nonroot
 EXPOSE 8000
 
-ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/bin/tini","--"]
-CMD ["uvicorn","app:app","--host","0.0.0.0","--port","8000"]
-
+# Module form (-m uvicorn) sidesteps broken shebangs in /app/lib/bin/uvicorn
+# (those were generated against the builder's Python path, not distroless's).
+ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/bin/python3", "-m", "uvicorn"]
+CMD ["app:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"]