diff --git a/images/docker/api/Dockerfile b/images/docker/api/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bc7b88f7a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/images/docker/api/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+FROM docker/whalesay:latest
+
+RUN sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y build-essential python-pip git-core python-dev libssl-dev libffi-dev rng-tools libgmp3-dev
+RUN sudo pip install pip --upgrade
+RUN sudo pip install blockstack --upgrade
+
+RUN mkdir -p /usr/local/blockstack-core
+RUN git clone https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack-core /usr/local/blockstack-core
+
+WORKDIR /usr/local/blockstack-core
+
+RUN git fetch origin
+RUN git checkout -b api origin/api
+RUN sudo apt-get install -y libmemcached-dev zlib1g-dev
+RUN pip install --upgrade -r api/requirements.txt
+
+EXPOSE 5000
+
+CMD bin/blockstack-api
\ No newline at end of file