diff --git a/.changeset/tame-apricots-clap.md b/.changeset/tame-apricots-clap.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..949229bbb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/tame-apricots-clap.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"trigger.dev": patch
+---
+
+v3: postInstall config option now replaces the postinstall script found in package.json
diff --git a/packages/cli-v3/e2e/createContainerFile.ts b/packages/cli-v3/e2e/createContainerFile.ts
index 548977332..b0e886b24 100644
--- a/packages/cli-v3/e2e/createContainerFile.ts
+++ b/packages/cli-v3/e2e/createContainerFile.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";
 import { writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";
 import { join, resolve } from "node:path";
-import { cliRootPath } from "../src/utilities/resolveInternalFilePath";
 import { ReadConfigResult } from "../src/utilities/configFiles";
 
 type CreateContainerFileOptions = {
@@ -25,14 +24,5 @@ export async function createContainerFile(options: CreateContainerFileOptions) {
 
   let containerFileContents = readFileSync(containerFilePath, "utf-8");
 
-  if (config.postInstall) {
-    containerFileContents = containerFileContents.replace(
-      "__POST_INSTALL__",
-      `RUN ${config.postInstall}`
-    );
-  } else {
-    containerFileContents = containerFileContents.replace("__POST_INSTALL__", "");
-  }
-
   await writeFile(join(tempDir, "Containerfile"), containerFileContents);
 }
diff --git a/packages/cli-v3/src/Containerfile.prod b/packages/cli-v3/src/Containerfile.prod
index 1582a0b52..44c6da2e9 100644
--- a/packages/cli-v3/src/Containerfile.prod
+++ b/packages/cli-v3/src/Containerfile.prod
@@ -34,8 +34,6 @@ COPY --chown=node:node . .
 USER node
 RUN npm ci --no-fund --no-audit && npm cache clean --force
 
-__POST_INSTALL__
-
 # Development or production stage builds upon the base stage
 FROM base AS final
 
diff --git a/packages/cli-v3/src/commands/deploy.ts b/packages/cli-v3/src/commands/deploy.ts
index 2767e5996..add7f4e68 100644
--- a/packages/cli-v3/src/commands/deploy.ts
+++ b/packages/cli-v3/src/commands/deploy.ts
@@ -1323,6 +1323,7 @@ async function compileProject(
         dependencies,
         scripts: {
           ...javascriptProject.scripts,
+          ...(typeof config.postInstall === "string" ? { postinstall: config.postInstall } : {}),
         },
       };
 
@@ -1364,15 +1365,6 @@ async function compileProject(
 
       let containerFileContents = readFileSync(containerFilePath, "utf-8");
 
-      if (config.postInstall) {
-        containerFileContents = containerFileContents.replace(
-          "__POST_INSTALL__",
-          `RUN ${config.postInstall}`
-        );
-      } else {
-        containerFileContents = containerFileContents.replace("__POST_INSTALL__", "");
-      }
-
       await writeFile(join(tempDir, "Containerfile"), containerFileContents);
 
       const contentHasher = createHash("sha256");
diff --git a/references/v3-catalog/package.json b/references/v3-catalog/package.json
index 14632e9aa..1b0b560ca 100644
--- a/references/v3-catalog/package.json
+++ b/references/v3-catalog/package.json
@@ -8,7 +8,8 @@
     "queues": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register ./src/queues.ts",
     "build:client": "tsup-node ./src/clientUsage.ts --format esm,cjs",
     "client": "ts-node -r dotenv/config -r tsconfig-paths/register ./src/clientUsage.ts",
-    "triggerWithLargePayload": "ts-node -r dotenv/config -r tsconfig-paths/register ./src/triggerWithLargePayload.ts"
+    "triggerWithLargePayload": "ts-node -r dotenv/config -r tsconfig-paths/register ./src/triggerWithLargePayload.ts",
+    "postinstall": "echo 'package.json postinstall'"
   },
   "dependencies": {
     "@ffmpeg-installer/ffmpeg": "^1.1.0",
diff --git a/references/v3-catalog/trigger.config.ts b/references/v3-catalog/trigger.config.ts
index e460a15e6..cf7a0cb88 100644
--- a/references/v3-catalog/trigger.config.ts
+++ b/references/v3-catalog/trigger.config.ts
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ export const config: TriggerConfig = {
   dependenciesToBundle: [/@sindresorhus/, "escape-string-regexp", /@t3-oss/],
   instrumentations: [new OpenAIInstrumentation()],
   logLevel: "info",
+  postInstall: "echo '========== config.postInstall'",
   onStart: async (payload, { ctx }) => {
     if (ctx.organization.id === "clsylhs0v0002dyx75xx4pod1") {
       console.log("Initializing the app data source");