diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..85d195d38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+# Files to be excluded from the docker build context
+
+/.git
+/.github
+/svn-history
+/data
+/tmp-*