diff --git a/ci/common-ci.yml b/ci/common-ci.yml
index 97ae84ae0c..2747ec40ef 100644
--- a/ci/common-ci.yml
+++ b/ci/common-ci.yml
@@ -24,8 +24,8 @@ stages:
     - TAG_REPO=`find $SPACK_DLAF_REPO -type f -exec sha256sum {} \; | sha256sum - | head -c 16`
     - TAG_ENVIRONMENT=`cat $SPACK_ENVIRONMENT $COMMON_SPACK_ENVIRONMENT | sha256sum | head -c 16`
     - TAG=${TAG_IMAGE}-${TAG_APTGET}-${TAG_COMPILER}-MKL${USE_MKL}-${TAG_DOCKERFILE}-${TAG_SPACK}-${TAG_REPO}-${TAG_ENVIRONMENT}
-    - export PERSIST_IMAGE_NAME=$BUILD_IMAGE:$TAG
-    - echo "BUILD_IMAGE=$PERSIST_IMAGE_NAME" > build.env
+    - export PERSIST_IMAGE_NAME=$DEPS_IMAGE:$TAG
+    - echo "DEPS_IMAGE=$PERSIST_IMAGE_NAME" > build.env
     - echo "USE_MKL=$USE_MKL" >> build.env
     - echo "USE_ROCBLAS=$USE_ROCBLAS" >> build.env
     - echo "USE_CODECOV=$USE_CODECOV" >> build.env
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ stages:
     SPACK_DLAF_REPO: ./spack
     DOCKER_BUILD_ARGS: '[
         "BASE_IMAGE",
-        "BUILDKIT_INLINE_CACHE=1",
         "SPACK_SHA",
         "EXTRA_APTGET",
         "COMPILER",
@@ -71,21 +70,14 @@ stages:
   after_script:
     - podman run -v $PWD/ci/ctest_to_gitlab.sh:/ctest_to_gitlab.sh $DEPLOY_IMAGE /ctest_to_gitlab.sh "$DEPLOY_IMAGE" "$USE_CODECOV" "$THREADS_PER_NODE" "$SLURM_CONSTRAINT" > pipeline.yml
   variables:
-    PERSIST_IMAGE_NAME: $DEPLOY_IMAGE
+    PERSIST_IMAGE_NAME: $DLAF_IMAGE
     DOCKER_BUILD_ARGS: '[
-        "BUILD_IMAGE",
-        "DEPLOY_BASE_IMAGE",
-        "EXTRA_APTGET_DEPLOY",
         "PIP_OPTS",
-        "USE_MKL",
-        "USE_ROCBLAS",
         "NUM_PROCS=$NUM_CORES_BUILD_DLAF"
       ]'
     # default configuration variables
     # can be overwritten in the configuration as needed
     DOCKERFILE: ci/docker/deploy.Dockerfile
-    DEPLOY_BASE_IMAGE: docker.io/ubuntu:24.04
-    EXTRA_APTGET_DEPLOY: ""
     PIP_OPTS: ""
   artifacts:
     paths:
diff --git a/ci/cpu/clang18_release.yml b/ci/cpu/clang18_release.yml
index 6a01bc5a01..db61babf2b 100644
--- a/ci/cpu/clang18_release.yml
+++ b/ci/cpu/clang18_release.yml
@@ -6,9 +6,9 @@ cpu clang18 release deps:
   variables:
     EXTRA_APTGET: "clang-18 libomp-18-dev"
     COMPILER: clang@18
-    USE_MKL: "ON"
     SPACK_ENVIRONMENT: ci/docker/release-cpu.yaml
-    BUILD_IMAGE: $CSCS_REGISTRY_PATH/cpu-clang18-release/build
+    USE_MKL: "ON"
+    DEPS_IMAGE: $CSCS_REGISTRY_PATH/cpu-clang18-release/deps
 
 cpu clang18 release build:
   extends:
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ cpu clang18 release build:
   needs:
     - cpu clang18 release deps
   variables:
-    DEPLOY_IMAGE: $CSCS_REGISTRY_PATH/cpu-clang18-release/deploy:$CI_COMMIT_SHA
+    DLAF_IMAGE: $CSCS_REGISTRY_PATH/cpu-clang18-release/dlaf:$CI_COMMIT_SHA
 
 cpu clang18 release test:
   extends: .run_common
diff --git a/ci/cuda/gcc11_release.yml b/ci/cuda/gcc11_release.yml
index 7d47f16d09..40d2b20bf2 100644
--- a/ci/cuda/gcc11_release.yml
+++ b/ci/cuda/gcc11_release.yml
@@ -6,10 +6,9 @@ cuda gcc11 release deps:
   variables:
     BASE_IMAGE: docker.io/nvidia/cuda:11.7.1-devel-ubuntu22.04
     COMPILER: gcc@11
-    CXXSTD: 17
     SPACK_ENVIRONMENT: ci/docker/release-cuda.yaml
     USE_MKL: "ON"
-    BUILD_IMAGE: $CSCS_REGISTRY_PATH/cuda-gcc11-release/build
+    DEPS_IMAGE: $CSCS_REGISTRY_PATH/cuda-gcc11-release/deps
 
 cuda gcc11 release build:
   extends:
@@ -18,8 +17,7 @@ cuda gcc11 release build:
   needs:
     - cuda gcc11 release deps
   variables:
-    DEPLOY_BASE_IMAGE: docker.io/ubuntu:22.04
-    DEPLOY_IMAGE: $CSCS_REGISTRY_PATH/cuda-gcc11-release/deploy:$CI_COMMIT_SHA
+    DLAF_IMAGE: $CSCS_REGISTRY_PATH/cuda-gcc11-release/dlaf:$CI_COMMIT_SHA
 
 cuda gcc11 release test:
   extends: .run_common
diff --git a/ci/docker/build.Dockerfile b/ci/docker/build.Dockerfile
index fadb655dd0..397c6a7660 100644
--- a/ci/docker/build.Dockerfile
+++ b/ci/docker/build.Dockerfile
@@ -6,28 +6,28 @@ FROM $BASE_IMAGE
 LABEL com.jfrog.artifactory.retention.maxDays="21"
 
 ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \
-    PATH="$PATH:/opt/spack/bin:/opt/libtree" \
+    PATH="$PATH:/opt/spack/bin" \
     SPACK_COLOR=always
 SHELL ["/bin/bash", "-c"]
 
 ARG EXTRA_APTGET
+# python is needed for spack and fastcov
+# codecov upload needs curl + ca-certificates
+# glibc-tools is needed for libSegFault on ubuntu > 22.04
+# jq, strace are needed for check-threads
+# tzdata is needed to print correct time
 RUN apt-get -yqq update && \
     apt-get -yqq install --no-install-recommends \
     software-properties-common \
     build-essential gfortran \
     autoconf automake libssl-dev ninja-build pkg-config \
-    ${EXTRA_APTGET} \
     gawk \
     python3 python3-setuptools \
     git tar wget curl ca-certificates gpg-agent jq tzdata \
+    glibc-tools strace \
     patchelf unzip file gnupg2 libncurses-dev && \
     rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
-# Install libtree for packaging
-RUN mkdir -p /opt/libtree && \
-    curl -Lfso /opt/libtree/libtree https://github.com/haampie/libtree/releases/download/v2.0.0/libtree_x86_64 && \
-    chmod +x /opt/libtree/libtree
-
 # Install MKL and remove static libs (to keep image smaller)
 ARG USE_MKL=ON
 ARG MKL_VERSION=2024.0
diff --git a/ci/docker/codecov.Dockerfile b/ci/docker/codecov.Dockerfile
index 3673b680ac..b9a7c9dcad 100644
--- a/ci/docker/codecov.Dockerfile
+++ b/ci/docker/codecov.Dockerfile
@@ -1,18 +1,17 @@
-ARG BUILD_IMAGE
-ARG DEPLOY_BASE_IMAGE
+ARG DEPS_IMAGE
+FROM $DEPS_IMAGE
 
-# This is the folder where the project is built
+LABEL com.jfrog.artifactory.retention.maxDays="7"
+LABEL com.jfrog.artifactory.retention.maxCount="10"
+
+# Directory where the project is built
 ARG BUILD=/DLA-Future-build
-# This is where we copy the sources to
+# Directory where the miniapps are built as separate project
+ARG BUILD_MINIAPP=/DLA-Future-miniapp-build
+# Directory where the sources are copied to
 ARG SOURCE=/DLA-Future
-# Where a bunch of shared libs live
-ARG DEPLOY=/root/DLA-Future.bundle
-
-FROM $BUILD_IMAGE as builder
-
-ARG BUILD
-ARG SOURCE
-ARG DEPLOY
+# Directory for some helper executables
+ARG BIN=/DLA-Future-build/bin
 
 # Build DLA-Future
 COPY . ${SOURCE}
@@ -28,83 +27,27 @@ RUN spack repo rm --scope site dlaf && \
     spack repo add ${SOURCE}/spack && \
     spack -e ci develop --no-clone --path ${SOURCE} --build-directory ${BUILD} dla-future@master && \
     spack -e ci concretize -f && \
-    spack -e ci --config "config:flags:keep_werror:all" install --jobs ${NUM_PROCS} --keep-stage --verbose
-
-# Prune and bundle binaries
-RUN mkdir ${BUILD}-tmp && cd ${BUILD} && \
-    export TEST_BINARIES=`PATH=${SOURCE}/ci:$PATH ctest --show-only=json-v1 | jq '.tests | map(.command | .[] | select(contains("check-threads") | not)) | .[]' | tr -d \"` && \
-    echo "Binary sizes:" && \
-    ls -lh ${TEST_BINARIES} && \
-    ls -lh src/lib* && \
-    libtree -d ${DEPLOY} ${TEST_BINARIES} && \
-    rm -rf ${DEPLOY}/usr/bin && \
-    libtree -d ${DEPLOY} $(which ctest gcov addr2line) && \
-    cp -L ${SOURCE}/ci/{mpi-ctest,check-threads,upload_codecov} ${DEPLOY}/usr/bin && \
-    echo "$TEST_BINARIES" | xargs -I{file} find -samefile {file} -exec cp --parents '{}' ${BUILD}-tmp ';' && \
-    find '(' -name CTestTestfile.cmake -o -iname "*.gcno" ')' -exec cp --parents '{}' ${BUILD}-tmp ';' && \
-    rm -rf ${BUILD} && \
-    mv ${BUILD}-tmp ${BUILD} && \
-    rm -rf ${SOURCE}/.git
+    spack -e ci --config "config:flags:keep_werror:all" install --jobs ${NUM_PROCS} --keep-stage --verbose && \
+    find ${BUILD} -name CMakeFiles -exec rm -rf {} +
 
-# Deploy Extra RocBlas files separately.
-ARG USE_ROCBLAS=OFF
-RUN mkdir ${DEPLOY}/usr/lib/rocblas; \
-    if [ "$USE_ROCBLAS" = "ON" ]; then \
-      cp -r `spack -e ci location -i rocblas`/lib/rocblas/library ${DEPLOY}/usr/lib/rocblas ; \
-    fi
+RUN mkdir -p ${BIN} && cp -L ${SOURCE}/ci/{mpi-ctest,check-threads} ${BIN}
 
-# Multistage build, this is the final small image
-FROM $DEPLOY_BASE_IMAGE
-
-# set jfrog autoclean policy
-LABEL com.jfrog.artifactory.retention.maxDays="7"
-LABEL com.jfrog.artifactory.retention.maxCount="10"
-
-ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive
-
-ARG BUILD
-ARG SOURCE
-ARG DEPLOY
-
-ARG EXTRA_APTGET_DEPLOY
 ARG PIP_OPTS
-# python is needed for fastcov
 # pip is needed only to install fastcov (it is removed with
 #     its dependencies after fastcov installation)
-# codecov upload needs curl + ca-certificates
-# glibc-tools is needed for libSegFault on ubuntu:22.04
-# jq, strace are needed for check-threads
-# tzdata is needed to print correct time
 RUN apt-get update -qq && \
-    apt-get install -qq -y --no-install-recommends \
-      ${EXTRA_APTGET_DEPLOY} \
-      python3 python3-pip \
-      curl \
-      ca-certificates \
-      glibc-tools jq strace \
-      tzdata && \
+    apt-get install -qq -y --no-install-recommends python3-pip && \
     pip install ${PIP_OPTS} fastcov && \
     apt-get autoremove -qq -y python3-pip && \
     apt-get clean
 
-# Copy the executables and the codecov gcno files
-COPY --from=builder ${BUILD} ${BUILD}
-COPY --from=builder ${DEPLOY} ${DEPLOY}
-
-# Copy the source files into the image as well.
-# This is necessary for code coverage of MPI tests: gcov has to have write temporary
-# data into the source folder. In distributed applications we can therefore not mount
-# the git repo folder at runtime in the container, because it is shared and would
-# cause race conditions in gcov.
-COPY --from=builder ${SOURCE} ${SOURCE}
-
 RUN cd /usr/local/bin && \
   curl -Ls https://codecov.io/bash > codecov.sh && \
   echo "f0e7a3ee76a787c37aa400cf44aee0c9b473b2fa79092edfb36d1faa853bbe23 codecov.sh" | sha256sum --check --quiet && \
   chmod +x codecov.sh
 
 # Make it easy to call our binaries.
-ENV PATH="${DEPLOY}/usr/bin:$PATH"
+ENV PATH="${BIN}:$PATH"
 ENV NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES all
 ENV NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES compute,utility
 ENV NVIDIA_REQUIRE_CUDA "cuda>=10.2"
@@ -115,6 +58,4 @@ ENV ENABLE_COVERAGE="YES"
 # Automatically print stacktraces on segfault
 ENV LD_PRELOAD=/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libSegFault.so
 
-RUN echo "${DEPLOY}/usr/lib/" > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/dlaf.conf && ldconfig
-
 WORKDIR ${BUILD}
diff --git a/ci/docker/deploy.Dockerfile b/ci/docker/deploy.Dockerfile
index a500dd918e..42a11b2264 100644
--- a/ci/docker/deploy.Dockerfile
+++ b/ci/docker/deploy.Dockerfile
@@ -1,18 +1,17 @@
-ARG BUILD_IMAGE
-ARG DEPLOY_BASE_IMAGE
+ARG DEPS_IMAGE
+FROM $DEPS_IMAGE
 
-# This is the folder where the project is built
+LABEL com.jfrog.artifactory.retention.maxDays="7"
+LABEL com.jfrog.artifactory.retention.maxCount="10"
+
+# Directory where the project is built
 ARG BUILD=/DLA-Future-build
-# This is where we copy the sources to
+# Directory where the miniapps are built as separate project
+ARG BUILD_MINIAPP=/DLA-Future-miniapp-build
+# Directory where the sources are copied to
 ARG SOURCE=/DLA-Future
-# Where a bunch of shared libs live
-ARG DEPLOY=/root/DLA-Future.bundle
-
-FROM $BUILD_IMAGE as builder
-
-ARG BUILD
-ARG SOURCE
-ARG DEPLOY
+# Directory for some helper executables
+ARG BIN=/DLA-Future-build/bin
 
 # Build DLA-Future
 COPY . ${SOURCE}
@@ -25,87 +24,18 @@ RUN spack repo rm --scope site dlaf && \
     spack repo add ${SOURCE}/spack && \
     spack -e ci develop --no-clone --path ${SOURCE} --build-directory ${BUILD} dla-future@master && \
     spack -e ci concretize -f && \
-    spack -e ci --config "config:flags:keep_werror:all" install --jobs ${NUM_PROCS} --keep-stage --verbose
+    spack -e ci --config "config:flags:keep_werror:all" install --jobs ${NUM_PROCS} --keep-stage --verbose && \
+    find ${BUILD} -name CMakeFiles -exec rm -rf {} +
 
 # Test deployment with miniapps as independent project
-RUN pushd ${SOURCE}/miniapp && \
-    mkdir build-miniapps && cd build-miniapps && \
+RUN mkdir ${BUILD_MINIAPP} && cd ${BUILD_MINIAPP} && \
     spack -e ci build-env dla-future@master -- \
-    bash -c "cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=`spack -e ci location -i dla-future` .. && make -j ${NUM_PROCS}" && \
-    popd
-
-# Prune and bundle binaries
-RUN mkdir ${BUILD}-tmp && cd ${BUILD} && \
-    export TEST_BINARIES=`PATH=${SOURCE}/ci:$PATH ctest --show-only=json-v1 | jq '.tests | map(.command | .[] | select(contains("check-threads") | not)) | .[]' | tr -d \"` && \
-    LIBASAN=$(find /usr/lib -name libclang_rt.asan-x86_64.so) && \
-    if [[ -n "${LIBASAN}" ]]; then export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$(dirname ${LIBASAN}):${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}; fi && \
-    echo "Binary sizes:" && \
-    ls -lh ${TEST_BINARIES} && \
-    ls -lh src/lib* && \
-    libtree -d ${DEPLOY} ${TEST_BINARIES} && \
-    rm -rf ${DEPLOY}/usr/bin && \
-    libtree -d ${DEPLOY} $(which ctest addr2line) && \
-    cp -L ${SOURCE}/ci/{mpi-ctest,check-threads} ${DEPLOY}/usr/bin && \
-    echo "$TEST_BINARIES" | xargs -I{file} find -samefile {file} -exec cp --parents '{}' ${BUILD}-tmp ';' && \
-    find -name CTestTestfile.cmake -exec cp --parents '{}' ${BUILD}-tmp ';' && \
-    rm -rf ${BUILD} && \
-    mv ${BUILD}-tmp ${BUILD}
-
-# Deploy MKL separately, since it dlopen's some libs
-ARG USE_MKL=ON
-RUN if [ "$USE_MKL" = "ON" ]; then \
-      export MKL_LIB=$(dirname $(find $(spack location -i intel-oneapi-mkl) -name libmkl_core.so)) && \
-      libtree -d ${DEPLOY} \
-      ${MKL_LIB}/libmkl_avx2.so.2 \
-      ${MKL_LIB}/libmkl_avx512.so.2 \
-      ${MKL_LIB}/libmkl_core.so \
-      ${MKL_LIB}/libmkl_def.so.2 \
-      ${MKL_LIB}/libmkl_intel_thread.so \
-      ${MKL_LIB}/libmkl_mc3.so.2 \
-      ${MKL_LIB}/libmkl_sequential.so \
-      ${MKL_LIB}/libmkl_tbb_thread.so \
-      ${MKL_LIB}/libmkl_vml_avx2.so.2 \
-      ${MKL_LIB}/libmkl_vml_avx512.so.2 \
-      ${MKL_LIB}/libmkl_vml_cmpt.so.2 \
-      ${MKL_LIB}/libmkl_vml_def.so.2 \
-      ${MKL_LIB}/libmkl_vml_mc3.so.2 ; \
-    fi
-
-# Deploy Extra RocBlas files separately.
-ARG USE_ROCBLAS=OFF
-RUN mkdir ${DEPLOY}/usr/lib/rocblas; \
-    if [ "$USE_ROCBLAS" = "ON" ]; then \
-      cp -r `spack -e ci location -i rocblas`/lib/rocblas/library ${DEPLOY}/usr/lib/rocblas ; \
-    fi
+    bash -c "cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=`spack -e ci location -i dla-future` ${SOURCE}/miniapp && make -j ${NUM_PROCS}"
 
-# Multistage build, this is the final small image
-FROM $DEPLOY_BASE_IMAGE
-
-# set jfrog autoclean policy
-LABEL com.jfrog.artifactory.retention.maxDays="7"
-LABEL com.jfrog.artifactory.retention.maxCount="10"
-
-ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive
-
-ARG BUILD
-ARG DEPLOY
-
-ARG EXTRA_APTGET_DEPLOY
-# glibc-tools is needed for libSegFault on ubuntu:22.04
-# jq, strace are needed for check-threads
-# tzdata is needed to print correct time
-RUN apt-get update -qq && \
-    apt-get install -qq -y --no-install-recommends \
-      ${EXTRA_APTGET_DEPLOY} \
-      glibc-tools jq strace \
-      tzdata && \
-    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
-
-COPY --from=builder ${BUILD} ${BUILD}
-COPY --from=builder ${DEPLOY} ${DEPLOY}
+RUN mkdir -p ${BIN} && cp -L ${SOURCE}/ci/{mpi-ctest,check-threads} ${BIN}
 
 # Make it easy to call our binaries.
-ENV PATH="${DEPLOY}/usr/bin:$PATH"
+ENV PATH="${BIN}:$PATH"
 ENV NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES all
 ENV NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES compute,utility
 ENV NVIDIA_REQUIRE_CUDA "cuda>=10.2"
@@ -113,6 +43,4 @@ ENV NVIDIA_REQUIRE_CUDA "cuda>=10.2"
 # Automatically print stacktraces on segfault
 ENV LD_PRELOAD=/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libSegFault.so
 
-RUN echo "${DEPLOY}/usr/lib/" > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/dlaf.conf && ldconfig
-
 WORKDIR ${BUILD}