diff --git a/.devcontainer/Dockerfile b/.devcontainer/Dockerfile
index b3320a095..5cdb1fe25 100644
--- a/.devcontainer/Dockerfile
+++ b/.devcontainer/Dockerfile
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@ RUN apt-get -qq update \
   && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
   git libxml2-dev
 
-COPY ../DESCRIPTION .
-
 # NB: patrick also pulls in testthat and pkgload
 RUN Rscript -e '                       \
 read.dcf("DESCRIPTION", "Imports") |>  \