> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.minimus.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Dev vs. Prod Images
> Why Minimus offers dev images with dev tools alongside more minimal production images
Every Minimus image comes in two variants: a production image and a dev image. Both are minimal, secure, and updated daily — but they serve different purposes.
* The production variant is the most minimal build: no shell, no package manager, no development utilities. Just the runtime and its direct dependencies.
* The dev variant includes standard tooling and at least one shell, making it suitable for building, testing, and debugging.
Visit the **Risk Reduction** tab on any image page to compare vulnerability reports for both builds.
## Why production images exclude developer tooling
Security requirements differ by context. In production, a smaller attack surface matters more than convenience. In development, speed and tooling matter more. Minimus optimizes for both by shipping every image as a tagged pair, allowing you to optimize each time instead of having to settle for a compromise.
Every Minimus image version ships as a complementary pair:
* Production image — e.g. `nginx:latest`
* Dev image — e.g. `nginx:latest-dev`
Production images contain only what's needed to run the application. Less code means fewer vulnerabilities, fewer attack vectors, and a smaller blast radius if something goes wrong. Dev images accept a modest size increase in exchange for a shell, package manager, and common utilities suited to the inner loop of building, testing, and debugging, all while still staying far leaner than the official upstream image.
## Why dev images simplify migration to Minimus
A common concern when adopting distroless images is losing the shell and package manager teams rely on for troubleshooting. Since every Minimus image already ships with a dev variant that keeps those tools intact, you don't have to give up familiar workflows on day one - you can migrate at your own pace and switch the final build stage to the distroless production image once you're ready.
## Build more secure apps using multi-stage builds
The prod/dev pair is designed for multi-stage workflows. Use the dev image for intermediate build steps — compiling, testing, installing dependencies — then switch to the production image for the final stage. The result is a lean, secure artifact with no build tooling included. [Learn more](/guides/multi-stage-build)
## Risk reduction reports for dev images
Every Minimus image has a risk reduction report. The report compares the latest version to the public image in both the production and dev builds. For example, you can see the report for the [Python-FIPS latest-dev](https://images.minimus.io/images/python-fips/risk-reduction?tag=latest-dev) image.
The report defaults to the production `latest` version, so you'll need to toggle the button to switch to the `latest-dev` report.
For FIPS images, the FIPS-verified Minimus image is usually compared against a non-FIPS public image.
## Easily compare dev and production images side by side
The Minimus interface makes it easy to see the security trade-off when comparing production images vs. dev images. The image line shows the builds side by side with a vulnerability count by severity. The dev image often trades a little security for convenience, and sometimes that trade is worth it. The choice is yours.
## Related topics
- [Going Distroless with Minimus](/foundations/going-distroless.md)
- [Introduction](/introduction.md)
- [Network Requirements](/manage/network.md)