diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
index dd90a9258180d..f561bc836f8e5 100644
--- a/.dockerignore
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -80,9 +80,10 @@
 
 # Git version is dynamically generated
 airflow/git_version
-airflow/ui/node_modules
-airflow/auth/managers/simple/ui/node_modules
 
+# Exclude node/pmpme caches..
+**/.pnpm-store
+**/node_modules
 # Exclude link to docs
 airflow/ui/static/docs
 
@@ -91,6 +92,14 @@ airflow/www/static/docs
 airflow/www/static/dist
 airflow/www/node_modules
 
+# Exclude any .venv and .ruff_cache
+**/.venv
+**/.ruff_cache/
+
+# Exclude docs artifacts
+**/_inventory_cache/
+docs/**/_api/**
+
 # Exclude python generated files
 **/__pycache__/
 **/*.py[cod]
@@ -99,7 +108,7 @@ airflow/www/node_modules
 **/env/
 **/build/
 **/develop-eggs/
-/dist/
+**/dist/
 **/downloads/
 **/eggs/
 **/.eggs/
diff --git a/dev/MANUALLY_BUILDING_IMAGES.md b/dev/MANUALLY_BUILDING_IMAGES.md
index 2a07f8b0c084e..b0537fe6c5b80 100644
--- a/dev/MANUALLY_BUILDING_IMAGES.md
+++ b/dev/MANUALLY_BUILDING_IMAGES.md
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 **Table of Contents**  *generated with [DocToc](https://github.com/thlorenz/doctoc)*
 
 - [Building docker images](#building-docker-images)
+- [Keeping your docker context small](#keeping-your-docker-context-small)
 - [Setting environment with emulation](#setting-environment-with-emulation)
 - [Setting up cache refreshing with hardware ARM/AMD support](#setting-up-cache-refreshing-with-hardware-armamd-support)
 
@@ -37,6 +38,31 @@ you do not have those two installed.
 You also need to have the right permissions to push the images, so you should run
 `docker login` before and authenticate with your DockerHub token.
 
+## Keeping your docker context small
+
+Sometimes, especially when you generate node assets, some of the files generated are kept in the source
+directory. This can make the docker context very large when building images, because the whole context
+is transferred to the docker daemon. In order to avoid this we have .dockerignore where we exclude certain
+paths from being treated as part of the context - similar to .gitignore that keeps them away from git.
+
+If your context gets large you see a long (minutes) preliminary step before dockeer build is run
+where the context is being transmitted.
+
+You can see all the context files by running:
+
+```shell script
+printf 'FROM scratch\nCOPY . /' | DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build -q -f- -o- . | tar t
+```
+
+Once you see something that should be excluded from the context, you should add it to `.dockerignore` file.
+
+You can also check the size of the context by running:
+
+```shell script
+printf 'FROM scratch\nCOPY . /' | DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build -q -f- -o- . | wc -c | numfmt --to=iec --suffix=B
+```
+
+
 ## Setting environment with emulation
 
 According to the [official installation instructions](https://docs.docker.com/buildx/working-with-buildx/#build-multi-platform-images)