diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
index 8b4efda47..dc89bfcd8 100755
--- a/.dockerignore
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -12,4 +12,7 @@ README.md
 CONTRIBUTING
 FUNDING.yml
 config/.gitignore
-db/.gitignore
\ No newline at end of file
+db/.gitignore
+**/__pycache__
+**/*.pyc
+**/*.pyo
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/server/models/notification_instance.py b/server/models/notification_instance.py
index 45327659f..0c9fbf5e8 100755
--- a/server/models/notification_instance.py
+++ b/server/models/notification_instance.py
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ from helper import (
     get_setting_value,
     getBuildTimeStampAndVersion,
 )
-from messaging.in_app import write_notification
 from messaging.notification_sections import SECTION_ORDER
 from utils.datetime_utils import timeNowUTC, timeNowTZ, get_timezone_offset
 
@@ -162,6 +161,7 @@ class NotificationInstance:
             self.HTML = final_html
 
             # Notify frontend
+            from messaging.in_app import write_notification  # lazy import to avoid Flask dep at module level
             write_notification(f"Report:{self.GUID}", "alert", self.DateTimeCreated)
 
             self.upsert()