Build AMD64 Docker Image on Apple Silicon Mac and push it to

By Prakash Pradhan
Oct 02, 2026
AWS , MacOS , NodeJS , DevOps
0 Comments

Build AMD64 Docker Image on Apple Silicon

When we are using a Mac with an Apple Silicon processor, such as an M1, M2, M3, or M4, we may run into an architecture-related issue when building Docker images.

A common scenario is that we build a Node.js Docker image on our Mac and later try to use that image in an environment that expects AMD64 (linux/amd64). Since Apple Silicon Macs use the ARM64 (linux/arm64) architecture, Docker may build the image for ARM64 by default.

This can result in errors when the image is deployed to an AMD64-based environment.

This post explains how to explicitly build a Node.js Docker image for AMD64, verify the architecture, and push the image to Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR).

Problem:

Apple Silicon Macs use ARM64 processors. EX: MacBook with M1/M2/M3/M4 uses ARM64

However, many cloud environments and container runtimes may use AMD64

So If we build a Docker image normally on an Apple Silicon Mac, Docker can build the image using the host architecture, resulting in an ARM64 image. If that image is then pushed to a registry and consumed by an AMD64 environment, we can encounter an architecture mismatch.

Solution:

The following example uses Node.js 24 Alpine as the base image.

1. Create a directory for the image.

Open your terminal and create or navigate to your working directory

cd Desktop/myimage

2. Create the Dockerfile.

Create a Dockerfile

echo "FROM --platform=linux/amd64 node:24-alpine" > Dockerfile

3. Build the AMD64 image.

Create a Dockerfile

docker buildx build \ --platform linux/amd64 \ --provenance=false \ --sbom=false \ -t nodejs:24-alpine \ . --load

4. List the images

List the images and copy the imageID

docker images

5. Verify the architecture.

Verify the architecture, the expected output is amd64

docker inspect --format '{{.Architecture}}'

Now when image is created with amd64, push to ECR with below steps

1. Authenticate with ECR

aws ecr get-login-password --region us-east-1 | \ docker login --username AWS \ --password-stdin awsAccountID.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

2. Tag the image

docker tag nodejs:24-alpine \ awsaccountID.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/nodejs:24-alpine

3. Push to ECR

docker push \ awsaccountID.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/nodejs:24-alpine

If this post helps you or if you want to add any suggestion, feel free to add a comment.

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Prakash Pradhan

Sr. Software Engineer

Senior Software Engineer with 10+ years of experience in designing and scaling distributed systems and full-stack applications. Experts in optimizing system performance, and delivering high-impact technical solutions across the entire software development lifecycle.

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Build AMD64 Docker Image on Apple Silicon