diff --git a/debian/Dockerfile b/debian/Dockerfile
index 7b9dd26..e106d26 100644
--- a/debian/Dockerfile
+++ b/debian/Dockerfile
@@ -136,6 +136,9 @@ RUN mkdir -p \
 
 RUN cp /var/www/html/resources/views/react/index.blade.php /var/www/html/public/index.html
 
+# copy the public/ directory into a separate folder so that we can overwrite the volume later via the entrypoint
+RUN mkdir -p /image-original/public && cp -r /var/www/html/public /image-original/public
+
 # Set permissions
 RUN chown -R www-data:www-data \
     /var/www/html/storage \
diff --git a/debian/scripts/init.sh b/debian/scripts/init.sh
index 77a37bf..d62cb94 100755
--- a/debian/scripts/init.sh
+++ b/debian/scripts/init.sh
@@ -46,6 +46,23 @@ chmod -R 775 \
 
 chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/storage
 
+# Ensure symlink for storage/app/public
+if [ ! -L /var/www/html/public/storage ]; then
+  echo "Creating symlink for storage/app/public..."
+  ln -sfn /var/www/html/storage/app/public /var/www/html/public/storage
+fi
+
+# Clean the existing public/ directory but exclude .js and .css files
+if [ -d /var/www/html/public ]; then
+  echo "Cleaning up stale files in public/ directory, retaining .js and .css files..."
+  find /var/www/html/public -type f ! -name '*.js' ! -name '*.css' -exec rm -f {} \;
+fi
+
+# Copy the public/ directory from the image to the mounted volume
+echo "Copying public/ directory from image to volume..."
+cp -r /image-original/public/* /var/www/html/public/
+
+
 # Clear and cache config in production
 if [ "$APP_ENV" = "production" ]; then
     gosu www-data php artisan config:cache