diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 1eaa320..47a62da 100755
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,16 +1,22 @@
 FROM python:3.8-alpine
 
+# install base system
 RUN apk add --no-cache gcc libc-dev linux-headers
-
-# install pypi packages
-COPY . /django_project
 RUN pip install --upgrade pip
-RUN pip install /django_project
 RUN pip install uWSGI==2.0.21
 
 COPY ./docker/uwsgi.ini /uwsgi.ini
-COPY ./scripts /scripts
-RUN chmod -R +x /scripts
+
+# install requirements
+WORKDIR /django_project
+COPY ./requirements.txt .
+RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
+
+# then scripts (likely wont change often)
 ENV PATH="/scripts:/py/bin:$PATH"
+COPY --chmod=700 ./scripts /scripts
+
+# finally copy app (likely will invalidate cache)
+COPY . .
 
 CMD ["on-deploy.sh"]
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c426cbc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Django==4.2
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 63afa74..eb64589 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -22,7 +22,5 @@ setup(
     python_requires='>=3.8',
     packages=find_packages(),
     scripts=['manage.py'],
-    install_requires=[
-        'django==4.2',
-    ]
+    install_requires=[],
 )