diff --git a/DEVELOPMENT.md b/DEVELOPMENT.md
index e7462df..9937842 100644
--- a/DEVELOPMENT.md
+++ b/DEVELOPMENT.md
@@ -152,6 +152,58 @@ cd ../../
 make refresh
 ```
 
+#### Portable Docker Dev Environment
+
+Requires
+    - vscode
+    - docker
+
+Build an image that has all elixir and node dependnecies to run the app, and all current source code and compiled assets
+
+```bash
+make local
+```
+
+run a docker container using the above image
+
+```bash
+docker run -it -d -v ./blockscout/blockscout-base:/src/blockscout  -v ./blockscout/patches:/src/patches kava-blockscout:local
+
+# apply current patches
+cd /blockscout/blockscout-base && git apply ../patches/*.patch && git add ./ && git commit -m "REVERT-ME-PATCH-COMMIT"
+# REVERT this commit before pushing to origin for a PR)
+```
+
+Attach a [vs code editor dev container](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/devcontainers/containers) to the running container (open command member, type/select Dev Containers: Attach to running container)
+
+Now any code changes you make inside the container will be persisted on your local machine, and you can use the patch workflow below to upstream your code changes.
+
+Create a patch of your changes to be applied when the development or production docker image is built
+
+```bash
+# from your host machine
+cd /blockcout/blockscout-base
+git diff > ../patches/NAME_OF_PATCH.patch
+```
+
+Some helpful commands
+
+```bash
+# from inside /src/blockscout of dev container
+# fetch dependencies from all apps
+mix deps.get
+# compile sources for all apps (indexer, explorer)
+mix compile
+
+# if you want to just update / compile a single app, such as the indexer
+# from inside /src/blockscout of dev container
+cd /apps/indexer
+# fetch dependencies for just this app
+mix deps.get
+# compile sources for just this app
+mix compile
+```
+
 #### Indexer status
 
 To see how far back the block explorer has indexed blocks, connect to the database and query to see what is the earliest block it has indexed, if these values change that means earlier and earlier blocks are being indexed (`refetch_needed` indicates whether the indexing was successful)
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index eeefd1c..f388b41 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -22,6 +22,10 @@ build:
 	cd blockscout && \
 	docker build ./ -f Dockerfile -t ${IMAGE_NAME}:${LOCAL_IMAGE_TAG} --build-arg BLOCKSCOUT_VERSION=${BLOCKSCOUT_DOCKER_VERSION}
 
+local:
+	cd blockscout && \
+	docker build ./ -f local.Dockerfile -t ${IMAGE_NAME}:${LOCAL_IMAGE_TAG} --build-arg BLOCKSCOUT_VERSION=${BLOCKSCOUT_DOCKER_VERSION}
+
 .PHONY: build-db-exporter
 # build the exporter image
 build-db-exporter:
diff --git a/blockscout/local.Dockerfile b/blockscout/local.Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7fd02a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/blockscout/local.Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+# Raw version representing v5.3.1-beta
+ARG BLOCKSCOUT_VERSION=5.3.1
+
+#
+# The backend-builder uses the official exlixir docker image that contains
+# Elixir, Erlang, compatiable OTP version, and mix.
+#
+FROM elixir:1.14-otp-25 as backend-builder
+ARG BLOCKSCOUT_VERSION
+
+WORKDIR /src
+
+# All elixir dependencies are already installed
+# We only need git to clone and apply patches
+RUN apt-get update \
+  && apt-get install -y git \
+  && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+# COPY patches first, since we want to apply after clone, but before compiling
+# This does force a re-clone if there are patch changes, but also reduces our layers.
+#
+COPY ./patches /src/patches
+
+# The order of the below steps must be kept the same
+#
+# Clone the  blockscout repository
+RUN git clone --depth 1 --branch v${BLOCKSCOUT_VERSION}-beta https://github.com/blockscout/blockscout.git
+WORKDIR blockscout
+# apply patches
+RUN git apply /src/patches/*.patch
+RUN mix local.hex --force
+RUN mix local.rebar --force
+# install prod dependencies
+RUN mix deps.get
+# compile minimal production optimized version of application
+RUN mix compile
+# The order of the above steps must be kept the same
+#
+
+#
+# The frontend-builder copies builds the block_scout_web frontend and installs solc for the explorer using npm.
+#
+
+WORKDIR /src
+
+RUN curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | bash - && \
+    apt-get install -y nodejs \
+    build-essential && \
+    node --version && \
+    npm --version
+# Build the user interface (block_scout_web/assets) and then install the solc npm package (explorer)
+RUN cd blockscout/apps/block_scout_web/assets \
+  && npm install \
+  && NODE_ENV=prod npm run deploy \
+  && cd ../../explorer \
+  && npm install
+
+#
+# The runner uses debian 11 (bullseye), which matches the OS used in previous steps.
+#
+# For elixir applications, we must ensure the locale is UTF-8.
+#
+# In addition, we also ensure ca-certificates are up to date.
+#
+# FROM debian:11 as runner
+# ARG BLOCKSCOUT_VERSION
+
+# Install locale, update ca certs, install node for contract verification
+RUN apt-get update \
+  && apt-get install -y locales ca-certificates nodejs \
+  && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* \
+  && echo "en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8" >> /etc/locale.gen \
+  && locale-gen \
+  && update-ca-certificates
+
+# Ensure utf8 locale is used
+ENV LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
+
+WORKDIR /src/blockscout
+
+#
+CMD tail -f /dev/null