diff --git a/services/web/.dockerignore b/services/web/.dockerignore
index 9502b929e9..1a00134a80 100644
--- a/services/web/.dockerignore
+++ b/services/web/.dockerignore
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 .git
 
+.npmrc
+
 modules/*/Makefile
 **/node_modules
 copybara
diff --git a/services/web/.npmrc b/services/web/.npmrc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9f9f22ed47
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/web/.npmrc
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# disable local, outside docker invocations of $ npm install
+dry-run=true