diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1aa92f57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+/.cache
+/.dep
+/.env
+/.git
+/.github
+/.idea
+/.local
+/.vscode*
+/Dockerfile
+/data
+/deps/minimap2/build
+/deps/minimap2/products
+/docs
+/example_datasets
+/pangraph
+/pangraph.tar.gz
+/vendor
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8f1c12b5..8d586274 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+\.cache
 .dep
 .local
 data
@@ -13,6 +14,9 @@ pangraph.tar.gz
 bin
 tutorial
 
+deps/minimap2/build
+deps/minimap2/products
+
 *.aux
 *.bbl
 *.blg
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..396b749f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+# Stage: builder image
+# This istage builds use a lot of dependencies and produce the binaries. The results will be copied
+# to another image and the builder image will be discarded.
+FROM debian:11 as builder
+
+SHELL ["bash", "-c"]
+
+
+RUN set -euxo pipefail \
+&& export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \
+&& apt-get update -qq --yes \
+&& apt-get install -qq --no-install-recommends --yes \
+  build-essential \
+  ca-certificates \
+  curl \
+  mafft \
+  make \
+  mash \
+>/dev/null \
+&& apt-get autoremove --yes >/dev/null \
+&& apt-get clean autoclean >/dev/null \
+&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+ENV PATH="/build_dir/bin:/build_dir/vendor/julia/bin:$PATH"
+
+COPY . /build_dir/
+
+RUN set -euxo pipefail \
+&& cd /build_dir \
+&& make
+
+
+# Stage: production image
+# We start over, from clean debian image, and copy the binaries from the builder stage.
+FROM debian:11 as prod
+
+# Copy pangraph from the builder stage
+COPY --from=builder /build_dir/pangraph/ /usr/
+
+# Copy julia dependencies from the builder stage
+COPY --from=builder /root/.julia/artifacts /root/.julia/artifacts
+COPY --from=builder /root/.julia/conda/3/bin /root/.julia/conda/3/bin
+COPY --from=builder /root/.julia/conda/3/lib /root/.julia/conda/3/lib
+
+SHELL ["bash", "-c"]
+
+RUN set -euxo pipefail \
+&& export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \
+&& apt-get update -qq --yes \
+&& apt-get install -qq --no-install-recommends --yes \
+  mafft \
+  mash \
+>/dev/null \
+&& apt-get autoremove --yes >/dev/null \
+&& apt-get clean autoclean >/dev/null \
+&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+# Allows non-root users to read dependencies
+RUN set -euxo pipefail \
+&& chmod -R +r /root/ \
+&& chmod +x /root/
+
+CMD ["/usr/bin/pangraph"]
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 8bc1a83e..214dd5b0 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -5,44 +5,51 @@
 version := 1.7.2
 
 ifeq ($(jc),)
-jc := ./vendor/julia-$(version)/bin/julia
+jc := ./vendor/julia/bin/julia
 endif
 
-jflags := -q --project=.
-julia  := julia $(jflags)
+jflags := --project=.
 srcs   := $(wildcard src/*.jl src/*/*.jl)
+# julia  := julia $(jflags)
 
 datadir   := data/synthetic
 testdatum := $(datadir)/test.fa
 
-all: pangraph install
+all: pangraph
 
 install: pangraph/bin/pangraph
 	ln -s $$(pwd)/$< bin/pangraph
 
-environment:
-	bin/setup-pangraph
+environment: $(jc)
+	$(jc) $(jflags) -e 'import Pkg; Pkg.instantiate();'
+	$(jc) $(jflags) -e 'import Pkg; Pkg.add(name="Conda"); import Conda; Conda.add("ete3", channel="etetoolkit")' \
+	$(jc) $(jflags) -e 'import Pkg; Pkg.build();'
 
 pangraph: pangraph/bin/pangraph
 
 $(datadir):
 	mkdir -p $@
 
-$(testdatum): | $(jc) $(datadir)
-	$(jc) $(jflags) -e 'import Pkg; Pkg.instantiate(); Pkg.build()'
+$(testdatum): | environment $(jc) $(datadir)
 	$(jc) $(jflags) -e 'using PanGraph; PanGraph.Simulation.test()'
 
 # TODO: look for ARM vs x86
+# TODO: julia gets installed into a directory containing version number. This makes it impossible to refer to the
+#  installation outside of this file.
 $(jc):
 ifeq ($(shell uname -s),Linux)
+	mkdir -p vendor && \
 	cd vendor && \
 	curl -L https://julialang-s3.julialang.org/bin/linux/x64/$(basename $(version))/julia-$(version)-linux-x86_64.tar.gz -o julia-$(version)-linux-x86_64.tar.gz && \
-	tar xzf julia-$(version)-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
+	tar xzf julia-$(version)-linux-x86_64.tar.gz && \
+	mv julia-$(version) julia
 else
 ifeq ($(shell uname -s),Darwin)
+	mkdir -p vendor && \
 	cd vendor && \
 	curl -L https://julialang-s3.julialang.org/bin/mac/x64/$(basename $(version))/julia-$(version)-mac64.tar.gz -o julia-$(version)-mac64.tar.gz && \
-	tar xzf julia-$(version)-mac64.tar.gz
+	tar xzf julia-$(version)-mac64.tar.gz && \
+	mv julia-$(version) julia
 else
 	$(error unsupported host system)
 endif
@@ -61,3 +68,25 @@ clean:
 	rm -rf pangraph pangraph.tar.gz
 
 include script/rules.mk
+
+
+export CONTAINER_NAME=neherlab/pangraph
+
+SHELL=bash
+.ONESHELL:
+docker:
+	set -euxo pipefail
+
+	# If $RELEASE_VERSION is set, use it as an additional docker tag
+	export DOCKER_TAGS="--tag $${CONTAINER_NAME}:latest"
+	if [ ! -z "$${RELEASE_VERSION:-}" ]; then
+		export DOCKER_TAGS="$${DOCKER_TAGS} --tag $${CONTAINER_NAME}:$${RELEASE_VERSION}"
+	fi
+
+	docker build --target prod $${DOCKER_TAGS} .
+
+docker-push:
+	set -euxo pipefail
+	: "$${RELEASE_VERSION:?The RELEASE_VERSION environment variable is required.}"
+	docker push ${CONTAINER_NAME}:${RELEASE_VERSION}
+	docker push ${CONTAINER_NAME}:latest
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e1e5b7b4..c24faa7c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 # pangraph
 
 [![Documentation](https://img.shields.io/badge/Documentation-Link-blue.svg)](https://neherlab.github.io/pangraph/)
+![Docker Image Version (latest semver)](https://img.shields.io/docker/v/neherlab/pangraph?label=docker)
+![Docker Pulls](https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/neherlab/pangraph)
 
 > a bioinformatic toolkit to align large sets of closely related genomes into a graph data structure
 
diff --git a/vendor/minimap2/Makefile b/deps/minimap2/Makefile
similarity index 100%
rename from vendor/minimap2/Makefile
rename to deps/minimap2/Makefile
diff --git a/vendor/minimap2/build_tarballs.jl b/deps/minimap2/build_tarballs.jl
similarity index 100%
rename from vendor/minimap2/build_tarballs.jl
rename to deps/minimap2/build_tarballs.jl
diff --git a/vendor/minimap2/static/patches/Makefile.diff b/deps/minimap2/static/patches/Makefile.diff
similarity index 100%
rename from vendor/minimap2/static/patches/Makefile.diff
rename to deps/minimap2/static/patches/Makefile.diff
diff --git a/docs/dev/buiding-docker.md b/docs/dev/buiding-docker.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fbd01876
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/dev/buiding-docker.md
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+## 👷 Building pangraph Docker image locally
+
+### Install dependencies
+
+ - Install bash and make.
+
+ - Install Docker: https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/
+
+ - Optionally setup Docker so that it runs without `sudo`: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/linux-postinstall/
+
+
+### Build Docker image locally
+
+Run:
+
+```bash
+make docker
+```
+
+This will build the Docker image tagged `neherlab/pangraph` (more precisely `neherlab/pangraph:latest`). If already exists, it will replace the existing image with that tag. The build will take some time.
+
+If completed successfully, then the image can be used right away. Refer to user documentation. Skip the "Pull Docker image" step.
+
+
+### Explore contents, layers and optimize image size
+
+You could use [dive tool](https://github.com/wagoodman/dive) to see what's inside an image:
+
+```bash
+dive neherlab/pangraph:<tag>
+```
+
+Each [layer](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31222377/what-are-docker-image-layers) reflects `FROM`, `COPY` and `RUN` commands and the files that have been added to the overlay file system of the image. This can be used to find redundant files. You could then further optimize `Dockerfile` and make the image smaller.
diff --git a/docs/dev/releasing.md b/docs/dev/releasing.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a0ec7c7f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/dev/releasing.md
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+## 🆕 Releasing pangraph
+
+### Releasing a new version
+
+Continuous integration (CI) will build a new version of the Docker container (see `Dockerfile`) on every pushed git tag.
+
+Make sure you are on a correct branch and commit. Most of the time you want to release code from `master`:
+
+```bash
+git checkout master
+```
+
+In order to create and push a git tag, run:
+
+```
+git tag $RELEASE_VERSION
+git push origin --tags
+```
+
+where `$RELEASE_VERSION` is a valid [semantic version](https://semver.org/), without a `v` prefix (i.e. `1.2.3` is correct, `v1.2.3` is not).
+
+The CI workflow will build the container image and will push it to Docker Hub. The image will be tagged with:
+ 
+ - `latest` (and will overwrite existing `latest` tag there)
+ - `$RELEASE_VERSION`
+
+Both tags should point to the same image, i.e. their sha hashes should be exactly the same.
+
+This image version can then be referred to as:
+
+ - `neherlab/pangraph:$RELEASE_VERSION`
+ - `neherlab/pangraph:latest`
+ - `neherlab/pangraph` (which is the same as `neherlab/pangraph:latest`)
+
+for example in `docker pull` and `docker run` commands.
+
+
+### Monitoring and debugging CI build
+
+The status of the builds can be seen on GitHub Actions page:
+
+https://github.com/neherlab/pangraph/actions
+
+### Verifying CI build
+
+After CI build successfully finishes, check Docker Hub to ensure that the new tag is present and that the "latest" tag is updated and points to the same hash:
+
+https://hub.docker.com/r/neherlab/pangraph
+
+Pull and run the new version to make sure it works as expected:
+
+```bash
+docker pull neherlab/pangraph:$RELEASE_VERSION
+
+docker run --rm -it \
+  --name "pangraph-$(date +%s)" \
+  --volume="$(pwd)/path-to-fasta:/workdir" \
+  --user="$(id -u):$(id -g)" \
+  --workdir=/workdir neherlab/pangraph:$RELEASE_VERSION \
+  bash -c "pangraph build --circular --alpha 0 --beta 0 /workdir/test.fa"
+```
+
+Here we mount local directory `path-to-fasta` as `/workdir` so that pangraph can read the `/workdir/test.fa"` file. 
+
+> 👷 TODO: implement automated tests
+
+
+### Modifying continuous integration workflow
+
+See `.github/workflows/build.yml`
+
+
+### Modifying Docker image
+
+See `Dockerfile`
diff --git a/docs/src/index.md b/docs/src/index.md
index 7fb7b933..5e2205cb 100644
--- a/docs/src/index.md
+++ b/docs/src/index.md
@@ -33,6 +33,56 @@ The documentation, and source code, uses the following terminology:
 
 There are multiple ways to install PanGraph (either the library or just command line interface)
 
+### Using Docker
+
+Docker container image for PanGraph is available on Docker Hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/neherlab/pangraph
+
+ - Install Docker
+
+    Install Docker as described on the official website: https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/
+
+    Optionally setup Docker so that it runs without `sudo` on Linux: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/linux-postinstall/
+
+ - Pull a version of the image
+
+    To obtain the latest version, run:
+
+    ```bash
+    docker pull neherlab/pangraph:latest
+    ```
+
+    To obtain a specific version, for example `1.2.3`, run:
+   
+    ```bash
+    docker pull neherlab/pangraph:1.2.3
+    ```
+
+ - Run PanGraph container
+
+    Issue `docker run` command:
+
+    ```bash
+    docker run --rm -it \
+      --name "pangraph-$(date +%s)" \
+      --volume="$(pwd):/workdir" \
+      --user="$(id -u):$(id -g)" \
+      --workdir=/workdir neherlab/pangraph:latest \
+      bash -c "pangraph build --circular --alpha 0 --beta 0 /workdir/data/synthetic/test.fa"
+    ```
+
+    Here we mount current directory `.` (expressed as absolute path, using `pwd` shell command) as `/workdir` into the container so that pangraph can read the local
+    file `./data/synthetic/test.fa` as `/workdir/data/synthetic/test.fa"`:
+    
+    ```
+                           . -> /workdir
+    ./data/synthetic/test.fa -> /workdir/data/synthetic/test.fa
+    ```
+
+    The `--name` flag sets the name of the container and the `date` command there ensures that a unique name is created on every run. This is optional. The `--rm` flag deletes the container (but not the image) after run.
+
+    Replace `:latest` with a specific version if desired. The `:latest` tag can also be omitted, as it is the default. 
+
+
 ### From Julia REPL
 ```julia
     (@v1.x) pkg> add https://github.com/neherlab/pangraph.git