diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c9fb40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+FROM python:3.12 
+WORKDIR /app
+
+
+# install python dependencies
+
+COPY requirements.txt requirements.txt
+
+RUN pip3 install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
+
+COPY lobby/ lobby/
+
+## add finalization arguments
+
+HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=5s --start-period=20s --retries=3 CMD curl -f -X GET http://localhost:1717/health
+
+EXPOSE 1717
+
+CMD [ "python3", "lobby/main.py", "prod"]
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8d90286..27ba3b1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -3,3 +3,30 @@
 # The Lob(b)y Server Everybody Asked For!
 
 More to come here...
+
+
+## Deploy with docker compose
+
+You need a running docker service and docker compose installed
+
+
+Then build the image:
+
+```bash
+docker build -t obpf-lobby .
+```
+
+Now you can run the docker compose file.
+
+```bash
+docker compose up -d
+```
+Note: the port is 1717 to proxy it through something like nginx.
+
+
+Other common docker compose comands include:
+```bash
+docker compose down # stop all containers
+docker compose ps # get details about running containers
+docker compose logs -f # see the logs of all containers  (-f watches them)
+```
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0531fd4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+version: "3.8"
+name: "obpf-lobby"
+services:
+    flask:
+        container_name: obpf-lobby
+        image: obpf-lobby:latest
+        ports:
+            - "1717:1717"
+        volumes:
+            - "./files/:/app/files/"
diff --git a/lobby/main.py b/lobby/main.py
index f28c7df..8df5b04 100644
--- a/lobby/main.py
+++ b/lobby/main.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import os.path
+import sys
 import time
 import typing
 from dataclasses import dataclass
@@ -81,6 +82,11 @@ def from_id(cls, id_: str) -> Self:
         return cls(id_, user.username)
 
 
+@app.route("/health", methods=["GET"])
+def health_check():
+    return create_ok_response({})
+
+
 @app.route("/lobbies", methods=["GET"])
 def lobby_list():
     @dataclass
@@ -198,4 +204,11 @@ class RegisterRequest(JsonSchemaMixin):
     return create_response(HTTPStatus.CREATED, {"id": new_user.id})
 
 
-app.run(debug=True)
+# this runs, when you launch this file manually, otherwise flask imports this file and ignores this
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    print(sys.argv)
+    if len(sys.argv) >= 2 and sys.argv[1] == "prod":
+        from waitress import serve
+        serve(app, host="0.0.0.0", port=1717)
+    else:
+        app.run(debug=True)
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index fc526d2..c31d378 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -23,4 +23,5 @@ setuptools==69.0.3
 six==1.16.0
 SQLAlchemy==2.0.25
 typing_extensions==4.9.0
+waitress==2.1.2
 Werkzeug==3.0.1