diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 9411887..62a86cf 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 FROM alpine:3.18 as build
 # making my own image for hugo because there doesn't seem to be an official one in repo, lazy so we're going with alpine
 RUN ["apk", "update"]
-RUN ["apk", "add hugo"]
+RUN ["apk", "add", "hugo"]
 ADD . /root/
 WORKDIR /root
 # pass in the uri or ip of the comments api so nginx can forward to it
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@ ENV COMMENTS_BACKEND=${WITH_BACKEND}
 RUN ["hugo", "--minify"]
 
 FROM python:3.11-alpine as fiddling
-RUN ["adduser", "-h", "/application", "application"]
+RUN ["mkdir", "/application"]
+RUN ["adduser", "-D", "-h", "/application", "application"]
 # might need to chown these
 ADD ./scripts/template_convert.py /application/template_convert.py
 ADD ./nginx.conf.template /application/nginx.conf.template
@@ -18,6 +19,6 @@ WORKDIR /application
 USER application
 RUN ["python", "/application/template_convert.py"]
 
-FROM nginx:1.25
-COPY --from=fiddling /application/nginx.conf
-RUN
+FROM nginx:1.25-alpine
+COPY --from=fiddling /application/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
+COPY --from=build /root/public /usr/share/nginx/html
diff --git a/nginx.conf.template b/nginx.conf.template
index 7572587..c153a10 100644
--- a/nginx.conf.template
+++ b/nginx.conf.template
@@ -24,4 +24,6 @@ http {
 	    # we're going to use a python program to substitute this out
 	    proxy_pass http://${{COMMENTS_BACKEND}}
 	}
+	###---}
     }
+}
diff --git a/scripts/template_convert.py b/scripts/template_convert.py
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index e69de29..0015084
--- a/scripts/template_convert.py
+++ b/scripts/template_convert.py
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#!/bin/env python3
+
+import os
+import re
+
+var_name = "COMMENTS_BACKEND"
+file_name = "nginx.conf"
+back = os.environ.get(var_name)
+buf = str() 
+with open(file_name+".template") as file:
+    buf = file.read()
+
+if back == None:
+    buf = re.sub("###{---(.|\n)*###---}", "", buf)
+else:
+    # ${{\s*$var_name\s*}}
+    buf = re.sub(rf"\${{{{\s*{var_name}\s*}}}}",var_name,buf)
+
+with open(file_name, "w+") as file:
+    file.write(buf)