diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
index 76b3c7c9f..8d907d9e0 100644
--- a/.dockerignore
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -12,3 +12,12 @@ node_modules
 .DS_Store
 .phpunit.result.cache
 .git
+.codeclimate.yml
+.github
+.gitignore
+.jshintrc
+.sonarcloud.properties
+ansible.cfg
+docker-compose.yml
+Vagrantfile
+*.md
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index e6af84f26..1687a6d25 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install Node
         uses: actions/setup-node@v3
         with:
-          node-version: 20.x
+          node-version: 24.x
 
       - name: Install JavaScript dependencies
         run: npm install
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install Node
         uses: actions/setup-node@v3
         with:
-          node-version: 20.x
+          node-version: 24.x
 
       - name: Install JavaScript dependencies
         run: npm install
diff --git a/cypress.config.js b/cypress.config.js
index 45fe3fdfb..21c9dd3a8 100644
--- a/cypress.config.js
+++ b/cypress.config.js
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@ const { defineConfig } = require("cypress")
 module.exports = defineConfig({
   projectRoot: "tests",
   e2e: {
-    // You also can run like this: npx cypress run --config "baseUrl=http://localhost/Skosmos"
+    // You also can run like this: npx cypress run --config "baseUrl=http://localhost/Skosmos/"
+    // !! Tailing slash in baseUrl is important
     baseUrl: 'http://localhost:9090/',
     setupNodeEvents(on, config) {
       on('task', {
diff --git a/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.ubuntu b/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.ubuntu
index f9aa47507..8f7216fe7 100644
--- a/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.ubuntu
+++ b/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.ubuntu
@@ -1,5 +1,26 @@
-# Stage 0: install Node dependencies
-FROM node:18-alpine AS npm-installer
+ARG NODE_VERSION=24
+
+# Stage 0a: Install composer packages (production)
+FROM composer:latest AS composer-prod
+WORKDIR /app
+COPY . /app/
+RUN composer install --no-dev \
+      --ignore-platform-req=ext-intl \
+      --ignore-platform-req=ext-xsl \
+      --ignore-platform-req=php
+
+# Stage 0b: Install composer packages (development with dev dependencies)
+FROM composer:latest AS composer-dev
+WORKDIR /app
+COPY . /app/
+RUN composer install \
+      --ignore-platform-req=ext-intl \
+      --ignore-platform-req=ext-xsl \
+      --ignore-platform-req=php
+
+# Stage 1a: install Node dependencies (production)
+ARG NODE_VERSION
+FROM node:${NODE_VERSION}-alpine AS npm-installer
 
 WORKDIR /usr/src/app
 COPY package.json ./
@@ -7,8 +28,18 @@ COPY package.json ./
 # install node.js dependencies e.g. Vue (but not the development dependencies)
 RUN npm install --omit=dev --ignore-scripts
 
-# Stage 1: runtime image
-FROM ubuntu:24.04
+# Stage 1b: install Node dependencies (development with dev dependencies)
+ARG NODE_VERSION
+FROM node:${NODE_VERSION}-alpine AS npm-dev
+
+WORKDIR /usr/src/app
+COPY package.json ./
+
+# install all node.js dependencies including dev
+RUN npm install --ignore-scripts
+
+# Stage 2: runtime image
+FROM ubuntu:24.04 AS runtime
 
 LABEL maintainer="National Library of Finland"
 LABEL version="0.1"
@@ -19,7 +50,6 @@ ARG DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
     apache2 \
     curl \
-    git \
     libapache2-mod-php8.3 \
     locales \
     php8.3 \
@@ -76,23 +106,69 @@ RUN echo "ServerName localhost" >> /etc/apache2/apache2.conf && \
 WORKDIR /var/www/html
 RUN rm index.html
 
-# composer and packages layer
-RUN curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
-COPY composer.json /var/www/html
-RUN php composer.phar install --no-dev --no-autoloader
+EXPOSE 80
 
-# skosmos layer
-COPY . /var/www/html
-RUN php composer.phar install --no-dev
+CMD ["/usr/sbin/apache2ctl", "-D", "FOREGROUND"]
 
-# install Node modules (from npm-installer stage)
-COPY --from=npm-installer /usr/src/app/node_modules /var/www/html/node_modules
+FROM runtime AS development
+
+# Install Node.js matching the version used in npm stages
+ARG NODE_VERSION
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
+    ca-certificates \
+    curl \
+    gnupg \
+ && mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings \
+ && curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource-repo.gpg.key | gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg \
+ && echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg] https://deb.nodesource.com/node_${NODE_VERSION}.x nodistro main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list \
+ && apt-get update \
+ && apt-get install -y nodejs \
+        libgtk-3-0t64 \
+        libgbm-dev \
+        libnotify-dev \
+        libnss3 \
+        libxss1 \
+        libasound2t64 \
+        libxtst6 \
+        xauth \
+        xvfb \
+ && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+# vendors with dev dependencies
+COPY --from=composer-dev /app/vendor /var/www/html/vendor
+
+# all source files including tests
+COPY . /var/www/html/
+
+# install Node modules with dev dependencies
+COPY --from=npm-dev /usr/src/app/node_modules /var/www/html/node_modules
 
 # Configure Skosmos
 COPY dockerfiles/config/config-docker.ttl /var/www/html/config.ttl
 
-HEALTHCHECK --interval=5s --timeout=3s --retries=3 CMD curl -f http://localhost || exit 1
+# install cypress
+RUN npx cypress install
 
-EXPOSE 80
+FROM runtime AS production
 
-CMD ["/usr/sbin/apache2ctl", "-D", "FOREGROUND"]
+# vendors (production only, from composer-prod stage)
+COPY --from=composer-prod /app/vendor /var/www/html/vendor
+
+# sources (only production files)
+COPY bin /var/www/html/bin
+COPY config /var/www/html/config
+COPY custom-templates /var/www/html/custom-templates
+COPY plugins /var/www/html/plugins
+COPY resource /var/www/html/resource
+COPY src /var/www/html/src
+COPY .env /var/www/html
+COPY .htaccess /var/www/html
+COPY composer.json /var/www/html
+COPY config.ttl.dist /var/www/html
+COPY favicon.ico /var/www/html
+COPY swagger.json /var/www/html
+
+# install Node modules (from npm-installer stage)
+COPY --from=npm-installer /usr/src/app/node_modules /var/www/html/node_modules
+
+HEALTHCHECK --interval=5s --timeout=3s --retries=3 CMD curl -f http://localhost || exit 1
diff --git a/src/controller/Controller.php b/src/controller/Controller.php
index 962531118..68df74d3a 100644
--- a/src/controller/Controller.php
+++ b/src/controller/Controller.php
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ protected function getGitModifiedDate()
     protected function executeGitModifiedDateCommand($gitCommand)
     {
         $commitDate = null;
-        $commandOutput = @exec($gitCommand);
+        $commandOutput = @exec($gitCommand . ' 2>/dev/null');
         if ($commandOutput) {
             $commitDate = new \DateTime(trim($commandOutput));
             $commitDate->setTimezone(new \DateTimeZone('UTC'));
diff --git a/tests/ModelTest.php b/tests/ModelTest.php
index 45de0dfe4..ee7f34ab4 100644
--- a/tests/ModelTest.php
+++ b/tests/ModelTest.php
@@ -37,15 +37,22 @@ public function testConstructor()
     public function testGetVersion()
     {
         $version = $this->model->getVersion();
+        // if git is installed on host
         // make sure that the returned version (which comes from composer.json)
         // matches the version from git tags
-        $git_tag = rtrim(shell_exec('git describe --tags --always'));
-        $this->assertStringStartsWith(
-            "v" . $version,
-            $git_tag,
-            "Composer version '$version' doesn't match git tag '$git_tag'.\n" .
-      "Please run 'composer update' to update the Composer version."
-        );
+        $shell_result = shell_exec('git describe --tags --always 2>/dev/null');
+        if (null !== $shell_result) {
+            $git_tag = rtrim($shell_result);
+            $this->assertStringStartsWith(
+                "v" . $version,
+                $git_tag,
+                "Composer version '$version' doesn't match git tag '$git_tag'.\n" .
+        "Please run 'composer update' to update the Composer version."
+            );
+        } else {
+            // This assert is to prevent a "risky" flag for no assertion in test
+            $this->assertNull($shell_result);
+        }
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/tests/WebControllerTest.php b/tests/WebControllerTest.php
index fe8ec663f..7798bbfcd 100644
--- a/tests/WebControllerTest.php
+++ b/tests/WebControllerTest.php
@@ -142,6 +142,7 @@ public function testGetGitModifiedDate($cacheAvailable, $cachedValue, $modifiedD
     }
 
     /**
+     * If git is installed on host.
      * Execute the git command and test that it returns a valid date time. It should be safe to execute this, as
      * Travis-CI and developer environments should have git installed.
      */
@@ -151,8 +152,13 @@ public function testExecuteGitModifiedDateCommand()
             ->shouldAllowMockingProtectedMethods()
             ->makePartial();
         $gitModifiedDate = $controller->executeGitModifiedDateCommand('git log -1 --date=iso --pretty=format:%cd');
-        $this->assertInstanceOf('DateTime', $gitModifiedDate);
-        $this->assertTrue($gitModifiedDate > (new DateTime())->setTimeStamp(1));
+        if (null != $gitModifiedDate) {
+            $this->assertInstanceOf('DateTime', $gitModifiedDate);
+            $this->assertTrue($gitModifiedDate > (new DateTime())->setTimeStamp(1));
+        } else {
+            // This assert is to prevent a "risky" flag for no assertion in test
+            $this->assertNull($gitModifiedDate);
+        }
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/tests/docker-compose.yml b/tests/docker-compose.yml
index 4d3fa9ad9..7cb0ae19c 100644
--- a/tests/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/tests/docker-compose.yml
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ services:
       file: ../docker-compose.yml
       service: fuseki-cache
   skosmos:
+    build:
+      context: ..
+      dockerfile: dockerfiles/Dockerfile.ubuntu
+      target: development
     extends:
       file: ../docker-compose.yml
       service: skosmos