Should I Use Separate Dockerfiles for Production and Development or a Multi-Stage Build?

You're not alone in feeling confused! Multi-stage builds let you have different build stages for your application, which can help you create a lean, optimized final image for production while keeping your development setup flexible. Each stage can include dependencies that are only necessary for that stage, which ultimately keeps your production image smaller and cleaner.

I'd suggest keeping a single Dockerfile and using different docker-compose files for development and production environments. This way, you can define your setups separately but still manage everything from one Dockerfile. You would build your image with the correct tag, and your compose files can point to the appropriate version depending on whether you're in dev or prod.