@Marvin Is there an argument i can pass to

prefect_docker.deployments.steps.build_docker_image

to enforce no caching of the image layers?

✅ thought for 269.4 seconds

yea you can pass thru all docker kwargs

Yes. Use the

ignore_cache

parameter. - Python example:

from prefect_docker.deployments.steps import build_docker_image

result = build_docker_image(
    image_name="my-image",
    tag="latest",
    ignore_cache=True,  # equivalent to --no-cache
)

- prefect.yaml example:

build:
  - prefect_docker.deployments.steps.build_docker_image:
      image_name: my-image
      tag: latest
      ignore_cache: true

Optional: if you also want to ensure the base image is refreshed, pass

pull=True

via `build_kwargs`:

build:
  - prefect_docker.deployments.steps.build_docker_image:
      image_name: my-image
      tag: latest
      ignore_cache: true
      pull: true

Repo for the Prefect Docker collection: prefect-docker

Both right, i just never know how to translate cli args to the deployment yaml 😅

i think here the docker python SDK spells

--no-cache

like

nocache

build:
    - prefect_docker.deployments.steps.build_docker_image:
        image_name: my-image
        tag: latest
        nocache: true

✅ thought for 234.9 seconds

ill make an issue about that https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/issues/19193

You’re right—thanks for calling that out. Apologies for the confusion on my side. Clarification: - In

prefect_docker.deployments.steps.build_docker_image

,

ignore_cache

controls Prefect’s step-level caching across

prefect deploy --all

runs (i.e., whether the step result is reused), not Docker’s layer cache. Answering your original intent (disable Docker layer cache): - There isn’t a dedicated “no Docker cache” flag exposed by this step today. - You can try passing a passthrough kwarg to the underlying build client: - For Docker SDK (docker-py):

nocache: true

- For python-on-whales:

cache: false

- In prefect.yaml, that would look like:

build:
  - prefect_docker.deployments.steps.build_docker_image:
      image_name: my-image
      tag: latest
      # ignore_cache: true  # only affects Prefect step cache; optional
      nocache: true         # try this (docker-py style)
      pull: true            # ensure base image is refreshed

- If

nocache

isn’t recognized in your environment, try:

build:
  - prefect_docker.deployments.steps.build_docker_image:
      image_name: my-image
      tag: latest
      cache: false          # python-on-whales style
      pull: true

Alternative cache-busting approach (works regardless of client): - Add a build arg and reference it in a no-op Dockerfile step to invalidate cache:

# prefect.yaml
build:
  - prefect_docker.deployments.steps.build_docker_image:
      image_name: my-image
      tag: latest
      build_args:
        CACHEBUST: "2025-10-16T12:34:56Z"  # or inject a timestamp/env var in your CI

# Dockerfile
ARG CACHEBUST
RUN echo "Cache bust: $CACHEBUST"

If you’d like, I can open an enhancement issue to expose a first-class

no_cache

parameter on the step so this is unambiguous. Repo: prefect-docker (issues: prefect-docker/issues). Does one of the passthrough options (

nocache

vs

cache: false

) work in your environment? If not, I can help troubleshoot which Docker client your deployment is using.

It works now with

nocache: true

! Thanks again for the great support! prefect rocket