diff --git a/Dockerfile.standalone b/Dockerfile.standalone
index cbd723f9..d75960c2 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.standalone
+++ b/Dockerfile.standalone
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 # The COPY always runs; the RUN only downloads missing files.
 FROM ubuntu:22.04 AS qemu-provider
 
+ARG ENABLE_ESP32=0
+
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends curl ca-certificates \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
@@ -15,44 +17,50 @@ RUN mkdir -p /qemu
 COPY prebuilt/qemu/ /qemu/
 
 # Download any missing files from GitHub Release
-RUN cd /qemu \
- && for f in libqemu-xtensa.so libqemu-riscv32.so esp32-v3-rom.bin esp32-v3-rom-app.bin esp32c3-rom.bin; do \
-      if [ ! -f "$f" ]; then \
-        echo "Downloading $f from release..." ; \
-        curl -fSL -o "$f" "${QEMU_RELEASE_URL}/$f" ; \
-      else \
-        echo "Using local $f ($(stat -c%s "$f") bytes)" ; \
-      fi ; \
-    done \
- && ls -lh /qemu/
+RUN if [ "$ENABLE_ESP32" = "1" ]; then \
+      cd /qemu \
+   && for f in libqemu-xtensa.so libqemu-riscv32.so esp32-v3-rom.bin esp32-v3-rom-app.bin esp32c3-rom.bin; do \
+        if [ ! -f "$f" ]; then \
+          echo "Downloading $f from release..." ; \
+          curl -fSL -o "$f" "${QEMU_RELEASE_URL}/$f" ; \
+        else \
+          echo "Using local $f ($(stat -c%s "$f") bytes)" ; \
+        fi ; \
+      done \
+   && ls -lh /qemu/ ; \
+    else \
+      echo "ESP32 support disabled. Skipping QEMU downloads." ; \
+    fi
 
 
 # ---- Stage 0.5: ESP-IDF toolchain for ESP32 compilation ----
-FROM debian:bookworm-slim AS espidf-builder
+FROM ubuntu:22.04 AS espidf-builder
 
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+ARG ENABLE_ESP32=0
+
+# Create empty directories to ensure COPY works later even if ESP32 is disabled
+RUN mkdir -p /opt/esp-idf /root/.espressif /opt/arduino-esp32
+
+RUN if [ "$ENABLE_ESP32" = "1" ]; then \
+    apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
     git wget flex bison gperf python3 python3-pip python3-venv \
     cmake ninja-build ccache libffi-dev libssl-dev \
     libusb-1.0-0 ca-certificates \
-    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* ; \
+    fi
 
 # Install ESP-IDF 4.4.7 (matches Arduino ESP32 core 2.0.17 / lcgamboa QEMU ROM)
-RUN git clone -b v4.4.7 --recursive --depth=1 --shallow-submodules \
-    https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf.git /opt/esp-idf
-
-WORKDIR /opt/esp-idf
-
-# Install toolchains for esp32 (Xtensa) and esp32c3 (RISC-V) only
-RUN ./install.sh esp32,esp32c3
-
-# Clean up large unnecessary files to reduce image size
-RUN rm -rf .git docs examples \
-    && find /root/.espressif -name '*.tar.*' -delete 2>/dev/null || true
-
-# Install Arduino-as-component for full Arduino API support in ESP-IDF builds
-RUN git clone --branch 2.0.17 --depth=1 --recursive --shallow-submodules \
-    https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32.git /opt/arduino-esp32 \
- && rm -rf /opt/arduino-esp32/.git
+RUN if [ "$ENABLE_ESP32" = "1" ]; then \
+    git clone -b v4.4.7 --recursive --depth=1 --shallow-submodules \
+    https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf.git /opt/esp-idf && \
+    cd /opt/esp-idf && \
+    ./install.sh esp32,esp32c3 && \
+    rm -rf .git docs examples && \
+    find /root/.espressif -name '*.tar.*' -delete 2>/dev/null || true && \
+    git clone --branch 2.0.17 --depth=1 --recursive --shallow-submodules \
+    https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32.git /opt/arduino-esp32 && \
+    rm -rf /opt/arduino-esp32/.git ; \
+    fi
 
 
 # ---- Stage 1: Build frontend and wokwi-libs ----
@@ -99,6 +107,8 @@ RUN npm install && npm run build:docker
 # ---- Stage 2: Final Production Image ----
 FROM python:3.12-slim
 
+ARG ENABLE_ESP32=0
+
 # Install system dependencies, nginx, and QEMU .so runtime libraries
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
     curl \
@@ -179,8 +189,10 @@ ENV ARDUINO_ESP32_PATH=/opt/arduino-esp32
 
 # Install ESP-IDF Python dependencies using the final image's Python
 # The requirements.txt has version constraints required by ESP-IDF 4.4.x
-RUN grep -v 'esp-windows-curses' /opt/esp-idf/requirements.txt \
-    | pip install --no-cache-dir -r /dev/stdin
+RUN if [ "$ENABLE_ESP32" = "1" ]; then \
+    grep -v 'esp-windows-curses' /opt/esp-idf/requirements.txt \
+    | pip install --no-cache-dir -r /dev/stdin ; \
+    fi
 
 EXPOSE 80