diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6d13903b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+.git
+activerecord/debug.log
+activerecord/test/config.yml
+doc
+node_modules
+pkg
+tmp
diff --git a/initial.yml b/initial.yml
index 55518e55..97cc5033 100644
--- a/initial.yml
+++ b/initial.yml
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ steps:
           timeout_in_minutes: 5
       NESTED
       fi
+      [ -f .buildkite/.dockerignore ] && cp .buildkite/.dockerignore .dockerignore
     plugins:
       - artifacts#v1.2.0:
           upload: ".buildkite/**/*"
diff --git a/pipeline-generate b/pipeline-generate
index 764ca85e..0b94d0ad 100755
--- a/pipeline-generate
+++ b/pipeline-generate
@@ -278,7 +278,7 @@ puts YAML.dump("steps" => [
           "plugins" => [
             {
               ARTIFACTS_PLUGIN => {
-                "download" => [".buildkite/*", ".buildkite/**/*"],
+                "download" => [".dockerignore", ".buildkite/*", ".buildkite/**/*"],
               },
             },
             {