Great question. In Prefect 3 (self-hosted), the simplest, repeatable way to “deploy all flows” is to: - Define your deployments in a

prefect.yaml

- Run

prefect deploy --all

at container runtime (not during docker build) Here’s a Dockerfile you can use to perform the deployment step in CI/CD. It assumes you have

prefect.yaml

and your flow code in the image. Basic “deployment runner” image (no docker build/push steps in prefect.yaml)

# Deploys all flows defined in prefect.yaml at container startup
FROM python:3.11-slim

WORKDIR /app

# Install your project deps and Prefect
COPY requirements.txt .
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt && \
    pip install --no-cache-dir prefect

# Add your flows and prefect.yaml
COPY . .

# IMPORTANT: Do NOT create deployments at build time.
# Creating deployments requires PREFECT_API_URL and will create duplicates.
# Run them at container startup instead:
ENTRYPOINT ["prefect"]
CMD ["deploy", "--all"]

Run it (CI or locally):

docker build -t my-org/prefect-deployer:latest .
docker run --rm \
  -e PREFECT_API_URL="<http://your-prefect-server:4200/api>" \
  -e PREFECT_API_KEY="${PREFECT_API_KEY}" \
  my-org/prefect-deployer:latest

If your prefect.yaml uses Docker build/push steps - Install the plugin and provide Docker access inside the container.

# Deploys all flows defined in prefect.yaml that use docker build/push steps
FROM python:3.11-slim

WORKDIR /app

# Install system packages for docker CLI if you need to build/push images from steps
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
    ca-certificates curl gnupg && \
    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

# Install Prefect and docker plugin
COPY requirements.txt .
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt && \
    pip install --no-cache-dir prefect prefect-docker

# Copy your project
COPY . .

# If your steps need the Docker CLI, install it or run in a Docker-enabled CI runner
# and mount the host docker socket when running:
#   docker run -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock ...

ENTRYPOINT ["prefect"]
CMD ["deploy", "--all"]

Notes and best practices - Define all deployments in

prefect.yaml

. Then

prefect deploy --all

will register them. - Don’t run

prefect deploy

during the Docker build; do it at runtime (as shown). - Set

PREFECT_API_URL

(and

PREFECT_API_KEY

if auth is enabled) when running the container. - This image only registers deployments; it does not run a worker. You’ll still need a Prefect worker (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes) pointing at your self-hosted server to execute the runs created by those deployments. If you share: - What work pool type you’re targeting (Docker, Kubernetes, Process, etc.) - Whether your prefect.yaml needs to build/push images I can tailor the Dockerfile and an example

prefect.yaml

to match your setup.

You’re seeing that prompt because

prefect deploy

is running interactively and there’s no

prefect.yaml

yet. Two easy ways to make this fully non-interactive in CI/Docker: Option A (recommended): commit a prefect.yaml and deploy with prompts disabled - Add a

prefect.yaml

to your repo that defines your deployments - Run with

PREFECT_CLI_PROMPT=false

so no prompts are shown Example:

# CI or docker run
export PREFECT_API_URL="<http://your-prefect-server:4200/api>"
export PREFECT_API_KEY="***"
export PREFECT_CLI_PROMPT=false

prefect deploy --all

Option B: provide all required flags and disable prompts - If you’re deploying a single entrypoint without a prefect.yaml, pass all required flags and set `PREFECT_CLI_PROMPT=false`:

export PREFECT_API_URL="<http://your-prefect-server:4200/api>"
export PREFECT_API_KEY="***"
export PREFECT_CLI_PROMPT=false

prefect deploy ./flows/my_flow.py:my_flow \
  --name my-deployment \
  --pool my-work-pool

Why this works - The “Would you like to save configuration…” prompt only appears when: - Running in interactive mode, and - There’s no

prefect.yaml

present - Setting

PREFECT_CLI_PROMPT=false

disables prompts globally. - Having a

prefect.yaml

present prevents that specific question entirely. If you’d like, share your work pool type (Docker/Kubernetes/Process) and I can sketch a minimal

prefect.yaml

so

prefect deploy --all

runs silently in your Dockerfile/CI.