diff --git a/core/base/Dockerfile b/core/base/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..71ac6e31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/base/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+# syntax=docker/dockerfile-upstream:1.4.3
+
+ARG DISTRO=alpine:3.14.5
+FROM $DISTRO
+
+ENV TZ Etc/UTC
+ENV LANG C.UTF-8
+
+# TODO: use intermediate image to build virtual env
+
+RUN set -euxo pipefail \
+ && adduser -s /bin/bash -Dh /app -k /var/empty -u 1000 -g mailu app \
+ && apk add --no-cache bash ca-certificates tzdata python3 py3-pip py3-wheel \
+ && pip3 install --no-cache-dir --upgrade pip
+
+WORKDIR /app
+
+COPY libs libs/
+
+# TODO: work in virtual env (see above)
+# && python3 -m venv . \
+RUN set -euxo pipefail \
+ && pip3 install --no-cache-dir -r libs/requirements.txt --only-binary=:all: \
+ || ( apk add --no-cache --virtual .build-deps gcc musl-dev python3-dev \
+      && pip3 install --no-cache-dir -r libs/requirements.txt \
+      && apk del --no-cache .build-deps )
+
+# TODO: clean image (or use intermediate - see above)
+# && bin/pip uninstall -y pip distribute setuptools wheel \
+# && rm -rf /tmp/* /root/.cache/pip