In addition to the main context key that defines the build context, each target can also define additional named contexts with a map defined with key contexts. These values map to the --build-context flag in the build command.

Inside the Dockerfile these contexts can be used with the FROM instruction or --from flag.

Supported context values are:

• Local filesystem directories
• Container images
• Git URLs
• HTTP URLs
• Name of another target in the Bake file

Pinning alpine image#

```dockerfile {title=Dockerfile}

syntax=docker/dockerfile:1#

FROM alpine RUN echo "Hello world"

```hcl {title=docker-bake.hcl}
target "app" {
  contexts = {
    alpine = "docker-image://alpine:3.13"
  }
}

Using a secondary source directory#

```dockerfile {title=Dockerfile} FROM golang COPY --from=src . .

```hcl {title=docker-bake.hcl}
# Running `docker buildx bake app` will result in `src` not pointing
# to some previous build stage but to the client filesystem, not part of the context.
target "app" {
  contexts = {
    src = "../path/to/source"
  }
}

Using a target as a build context#

To use a result of one target as a build context of another, specify the target name with target: prefix.

```dockerfile {title=baseapp.Dockerfile} FROM scratch

```dockerfile {title=Dockerfile}
# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
FROM baseapp
RUN echo "Hello world"

```hcl {title=docker-bake.hcl} target "base" { dockerfile = "baseapp.Dockerfile" }

target "app" { contexts = { baseapp = "target:base" } } ```

In most cases you should just use a single multi-stage Dockerfile with multiple targets for similar behavior. This case is only recommended when you have multiple Dockerfiles that can't be easily merged into one.