diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 68aa909..b86e11a 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -26,18 +26,8 @@ clean:
 
 compile-on-debian-11:
 	# builds repo2html compatible with systems running glibc-2.31 and higher.
-	#
-	# this will download a debian docker container that has glibc 2.31, then
-	# download chicken scheme, gcc compiler, and tons of related packages, then
-	# download all the dependency eggs, then compile them, then compile this
-	# project, then except for that one output executable it will delete
-	# *everything* it has done and downloaded including any caches meant to
-	# save you some time and bandwidth the next time you need to compile this
-	#
-	# what i'm saying is, if we need to run this frequently, we should find a
-	# better mechanism. providing a dockerfile would probably be sufficient...
-	docker run --rm -it -v "$(shell pwd)":/tmp/x -w /tmp/x  debian:bullseye-slim sh -c '\
-		apt update &&\
-		apt install -y chicken-bin build-essential make &&\
-		make dependencies &&\
-		make compile'
+	docker build docker
+	docker run -v $(shell pwd):/tmp/x -w /tmp/x --rm repo2htmlbuilder make compile
+	# the docker image "repo2htmlbuilder:latest" now exists on your system.
+	# this will make the next time you run this command go faster.
+	# to delete it and reclaim the space run "docker image rm repo2htmlbuilder:latest"
diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile b/docker/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..85b2dda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+FROM debian:bullseye-slim
+RUN apt update && apt install -y \
+    chicken-bin \
+    gcc \
+    make \
+    ;
+RUN chicken-install utf8 lowdown sxml-transforms clojurian symbol-utils scss srfi-1 srfi-13 srfi-14 ersatz
+USER $UID