diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 057693c..a084234 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:8.0 AS build
 WORKDIR /src
 
+# expose ports
+ENV ASPNETCORE_HTTP_PORTS=8081
+EXPOSE 8081
+
 # 1. Copy the .sln and .csproj files first to restore dependencies
 # This makes builds faster by caching the 'restore' layer
 COPY ["SampleApi/SampleApi.csproj", "SampleApi/"]