diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
index c4198b1d4..c494c4546 100644
--- a/.dockerignore
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-.git/
 .github/
 .vscode/
 **/__pycache__/
diff --git a/appcontainer/Dockerfile b/appcontainer/Dockerfile
index 9e6cb3b98..85023e4f3 100644
--- a/appcontainer/Dockerfile
+++ b/appcontainer/Dockerfile
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ RUN python -m pip install --upgrade pip
 COPY appcontainer/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
 COPY appcontainer/proxy.conf /calitp/run/proxy.conf
 
+# copy files needed for version metadata
+COPY .git .git
+
 # copy source files
 COPY manage.py manage.py
 COPY bin bin