Let's try this...

Dockerfile

@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
+ARG ENV=production
+ARG MONGO_VERSION=latest
+ARG PORT=9001
+
 ## mongo build stage
-ARG MONGO_VERSION=${MONGO_VERSION}
-FROM mongo:${MONGO_VERSION:-latest} AS database
+FROM mongo:${MONGO_VERSION} AS database
 WORKDIR /
 COPY mongo-init.js ./docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/
 
@@ -17,10 +20,10 @@ RUN yarn build
 
 ## this is stage two , where the app actually runs
 FROM node:20-alpine AS containerize
-ENV NODE_ENV ${ENV:-production}
+ENV NODE_ENV ${ENV}
 WORKDIR /home/node/app
 COPY package*.json ./
 RUN yarn install --frozen-lockfile --production
 COPY --from=build /home/node/app/dist .
-EXPOSE ${PORT:-9001}
+EXPOSE ${PORT}
 CMD ["node","server/index.js"]

docker-compose.staging-build.yml

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ services:
             context: .
             target: database
             args:
-              MONGO_VERSION: ${MONGO_VERSION}
+              - MONGO_VERSION
         networks:
             - docknet
         volumes: