diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index fdc538aa999f2afb8f5e1addf9785dffff5bc284..0d02cf3ca0c3f1f114b62d5e59ddbec2c79af33c 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ builder:stable:
     - tags
     - master
   script:
+    - cp -r spack containers/builder/np-spack
     - cd containers/builder
     - head Dockerfile
     - make login
@@ -28,6 +29,7 @@ builder:unstable:
     - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "develop"'
       when: always
   script:
+    - cp -r spack containers/builder/np-spack
     - cd containers/builder
     - head Dockerfile
     - make login
diff --git a/containers/builder/Dockerfile b/containers/builder/Dockerfile
index 8cb543afe844bd6fa284873b03e57b2e594996f9..343109069732499d1bf06553a2c8501e4c742ba0 100644
--- a/containers/builder/Dockerfile
+++ b/containers/builder/Dockerfile
@@ -32,11 +32,9 @@ COPY spack.yaml /opt/spack-environment/spack.yaml
 ##       and only initialize the custom packages here for more
 ##       transparency
 RUN rm -rf $SPACK_ROOT/np-spack \
- && pwd \
- && cp -r ../../spack $SPACK_ROOT/np-spack \
- && cd $SPACK_ROOT/np-spack \
  && echo "repos:" > $SPACK_ROOT/etc/spack/repos.yaml \
  && echo " - $SPACK_ROOT/np-spack" >> $SPACK_ROOT/etc/spack/repos.yaml
+COPY np-spack $SPACK_ROOT/np-spack
 
 ## Install the software, no garbage collection at this stage
 ## as this is a raw builder image