diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
index d7f01b8..8deb491 100644
--- a/.dockerignore
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 
 vendor/
 node_modules/
+public/hot
 
 tests/
 test-results/
diff --git a/build/boot-container.sh b/build/boot-container.sh
index 56afafe..db78ba2 100755
--- a/build/boot-container.sh
+++ b/build/boot-container.sh
@@ -24,6 +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.