# Why does my remote build have a huge transferring context? **URL:** \ **Category:** Build debugging\ **Created:** [August 28, 2025, 1:17am UTC](https://community.fly.io/t/why-does-my-remote-build-have-a-huge-transferring-context/25790 "2025-08-28T01:17:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mkyc](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/fly1/user_avatar/community.fly.io/mkyc/32/42433_2.png) [@mkyc](https://community.fly.io/u/mkyc)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 1:17am UTC](https://community.fly.io/t/why-does-my-remote-build-have-a-huge-transferring-context/25790/1 "2025-08-28T01:17:19Z")
I recently noticed huge volume of data od `flyctl deploy` operation being sent. Viewing some other thread advising how to debug I did following: ```bash fly console --dockerfile Dockerfile -C bash Remote builder [redacted] ready ==> Building image with Docker --> docker host: 24.0.7 linux x86_64 [+] Building 671.2s (13/13) FINISHED => [internal] load .dockerignore 0.1s => => transferring context: 180B 0.1s => [internal] load build definition from Dockerfile 0.2s => => transferring dockerfile: 379B 0.1s => [internal] load metadata for docker.io/library/debian:bookworm 0.6s => [internal] load metadata for docker.io/library/golang:1.24.1-bookworm 1.7s => [builder 1/4] FROM docker.io/library/golang:1.24.1-bookworm@sha256:fa1a01d362a7b9df68b021d59a124d28cae6d99ebd1a 36.8s => => resolve docker.io/library/golang:1.24.1-bookworm@sha256:fa1a01d362a7b9df68b021d59a124d28cae6d99ebd1a876e3557c 0.0s ... => [internal] load build context 585.5s => => transferring context: 2.31GB 585.5s => [stage-1 1/3] FROM docker.io/library/debian:bookworm@sha256:731dd1380d6a8d170a695dbeb17fe0eade0e1c29f654cf0a3a07 0.0s => CACHED [stage-1 2/3] RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y ca-certificates && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* 0.0s => [builder 2/4] WORKDIR /usr/src/app 8.1s => [builder 3/4] COPY . . 69.1s => [builder 4/4] RUN go build -v -o /run-app . 13.7s => [stage-1 3/3] COPY --from=builder /run-app /usr/local/bin/ 0.1s => exporting to image 0.1s => => exporting layers 0.1s => => writing image [redacted] 0.0s => => naming to [redacted] --> Building image done ==> Pushing image to fly The push refers to repository [registry.fly.io/probe-holy-sunset-6371] bccbf78d7fce: Pushed 2444bcbeb7b7: Pushed 4668f0f488e5: Layer already exists deployment-[redacted]: digest: [redacted] size: 952 --> Pushing image done Image: [redacted] Image size: 148 MB Created an ephemeral machine [redacted] to run the console. Connecting to [redacted]... complete root@683900ea767e08:/# du -sh * .* 0 bin 4.0K boot 0 dev 1.3M etc 4.0K home 0 lib 0 lib64 4.0K media 4.0K mnt 4.0K opt 0 proc 12K root 8.0K run 0 sbin 4.0K srv 0 sys 4.0K tmp 150M usr 6.1M var 28M .fly 28M .fly-upper-layer ``` and whole application directory on my local machine is little over 200MB … so where does this `transferring context: 2.31GB` almost 10 minutes step comes from? ---
**Author:** ![halfer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@halfer](https://community.fly.io/u/halfer)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2025, 6:28pm UTC](https://community.fly.io/t/why-does-my-remote-build-have-a-huge-transferring-context/25790/2 "2025-08-31T18:28:16Z")
I wonder if there is a way to build the image locally, just using Docker, and seeing if the build context size can be displayed there. Perhaps the remote build has additional context, though I agree that sounds like a lot. ---
**Author:** ![rubys](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/fly1/user_avatar/community.fly.io/rubys/32/16907_2.png) [@rubys](https://community.fly.io/u/rubys)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 2:01am UTC](https://community.fly.io/t/why-does-my-remote-build-have-a-huge-transferring-context/25790/3 "2025-09-01T02:01:56Z")
> [@mkyc](#): > > `du -sh * .*` Try running the above command on your development machine. What’s happening: - The builder stage in your Dockerfile has a command `COPY . .` which copies every file from your development machine _except_ for those files listed in your `.dockerignore` file. - You have a separate stage which copies _only_ the files from `/usr/local/bin` to your final image, leaving the rest behind.