> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://astronomer.io/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Deploy a prebuilt image

By default, running `astro deploy` with the Astro CLI builds your project into a Docker image and deploys it to Astronomer Software. In some cases, you might want to skip the build step and deploy a prebuilt Docker image instead.

Deploying a prebuilt Docker image allows you to:

* Test a single Docker image across Deployments instead of rebuilding it each time.
* Reduce the time it takes to deploy. If your project has a number of packages that take a long time to install, it can be more efficient to build it separately.
* Specify additional mounts and arguments in your project, which is required for setups such as [installing Python packages from private sources](/docs/astro-private-cloud/v-0-37/customize-image#install-python-packages-from-private-sources).

## Prerequisites

In order to push code to a Deployment on Astronomer, you must have:

* [The Astro CLI](/docs/cli/v1.43/install-cli) installed.
* Access to an Astronomer platform at `https://app.BASEDOMAIN`.
* An Astronomer [Workspace](/docs/astro-private-cloud/v-0-37/manage-workspaces) with at least one active [Airflow Deployment](/docs/astro-private-cloud/v-0-37/configure-deployment).
* If your image names include a sha, you also need to [configure the CLI](/docs/cli/v1.43/configure-cli) to set `sha_as_tag` as `true`.

## Step 1: (Optional) Create a Docker image

1. Run `docker build` from an Astro project directory or specify the command in a CI/CD pipeline. This Docker image must be based on Astro Runtime and be available in a local Docker registry. If you run this command on an Apple M1 computer or on a computer with an ARM64 processor, you must specify `--platform=linux/amd64` or else the deploy will fail. Astro Deployments require an AMD64-based image and do not support ARM64 architecture.

2. (Optional) Test your Docker image in a local Airflow environment by adding the `--image-name=<image-name>` flag to any of the following commands:

   * `astro dev start`
   * `astro dev restart`
   * `astro dev parse`
   * `astro dev pytest`

## Step 2: Deploy code

If you have the image locally, run the following command or specify it in a CI/CD pipeline:

```sh wrap theme={null}
astro deploy --image-name=<image-name>
```

### Additional deploy options

If your image is in a remote repo, add the `--remote` flag with the path for the image and the `--runtime-version`.

```sh wrap theme={null}
astro deploy --image-name=<image-name> --remote=<path> --runtime-version=<runtime-version>
```

If you have DAG-only deploys enabled, you can also use the `--image` flag to deploy a prebuilt image without also deploying your DAGs folder. Use:

```sh wrap theme={null}
astro deploy --image-name=<image-name> --image
```

For more information about the different command options, such as specifying a remote private repository or configuring an Astronomer Runtime version, see the [CLI command reference](/docs/cli/v1.43/astro-deploy).

<Info>
  If you build an AMD64-based image and run `astro deploy` from an Apple M1 computer, you might see a warning in your terminal. You can ignore the warning.

  ```text wrap theme={null}
  WARNING: The requested image's platform (linux/amd64) does not match the detected host platform
  (linux/arm64/v8) and no specific platform was requested
  ```
</Info>