diff --git a/build/Dockerfile b/build/Dockerfile
index 3bfc359..5697e62 100644
--- a/build/Dockerfile
+++ b/build/Dockerfile
@@ -50,22 +50,15 @@ COPY . .
 # Run composer post-autoload-dump scripts (package discovery etc.)
 RUN composer run-script post-autoload-dump --no-interaction || true
 
-# Build Vite assets (outputs to public/build/)
 RUN npm run build
 
-# Copy public/ → public-build/ so the production stage retains built assets
-# even after public/ becomes a runtime bind-mount target.
-RUN cp -r public/ public-build/
-
 
 # =============================================================================
 # Stage 2: Production
 # PHP-FPM runtime image with all system dependencies.
-# Node.js is NOT present here.
 # =============================================================================
 FROM php:8.4-fpm-bookworm AS production
 
-# System packages (excluding Node.js — not needed at runtime)
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
         supervisor \
         libzip-dev \
@@ -84,6 +77,11 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
         git \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
+# Node.js 20 LTS — needed at boot to build Vite assets into the bind-mounted public/
+RUN curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | bash - \
+    && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends nodejs \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
 # LibreOffice for PowerPoint → PDF conversion (large layer, separate cache)
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
         libreoffice-impress \
@@ -107,9 +105,6 @@ WORKDIR /app
 # ── Copy built application from build stage ──────────────────────────────────
 COPY --from=build /app /app
 
-# Remove node_modules — not needed at runtime
-RUN rm -rf /app/node_modules
-
 # ── Install Docker config files ──────────────────────────────────────────────
 # Supervisord (manages php-fpm, queue:work, schedule:work)
 COPY build/supervisord.conf /etc/supervisor/conf.d/supervisord.conf
@@ -138,8 +133,7 @@ HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=10s --start-period=60s --retries=3 \
         cgi-fcgi -bind -connect 127.0.0.1:9000 2>/dev/null | grep -q "pong" || exit 1
 
 # boot-container.sh runs as root: creates dirs, sets permissions,
-# creates DB on first run, runs migrations, runs cache commands,
-# syncs built assets to the bind-mounted public/ directory,
-# then exec's supervisord (CMD).
+# creates DB on first run, builds Vite assets, runs migrations,
+# warms caches, then exec's supervisord (CMD).
 ENTRYPOINT ["/app/build/boot-container.sh"]
 CMD ["/usr/bin/supervisord", "-n", "-c", "/etc/supervisor/conf.d/supervisord.conf"]
diff --git a/build/boot-container.sh b/build/boot-container.sh
index db78ba2..d67c57c 100755
--- a/build/boot-container.sh
+++ b/build/boot-container.sh
@@ -24,18 +24,10 @@ mkdir -p \
 chown -R www-data:www-data storage bootstrap/cache database 2>/dev/null || true
 chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache database 2>/dev/null || true
 
-# Remove Vite dev server hot file if it leaked into the bind-mounted public/
-# (causes Laravel to try localhost:5173 instead of reading the manifest)
 rm -f /app/public/hot
 
-# Sync built Vite assets from the image (public-build/) into the
-# bind-mounted public/ directory. This ensures Caddy always serves
-# up-to-date assets even though public/ is a host bind-mount.
-if [ -d /app/public-build ]; then
-    echo "[boot] Syncing built assets to public/..."
-    cp -r /app/public-build/. /app/public/
-    chown -R www-data:www-data /app/public 2>/dev/null || true
-fi
+echo "[boot] Building Vite assets..."
+npm run build
 
 # Create the storage symlink after volumes are mounted
 # (public/storage → storage/app/public)