diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 34b2949..ab74d8c 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,15 +1,10 @@
 # issue-core REST ingestion service image.
 #
-# Installs the published issue-core[api] package from the Coulomb Gitea PyPI
-# index (no sibling-checkout build context) and runs the FastAPI ingestion
-# server on :8765. Built and pushed to gitea.coulomb.social/coulomb/issue-core.
+# Builds the checked-out issue-core[api] package and runs the FastAPI ingestion
+# server on :8765. The image is published to
+# gitea.coulomb.social/coulomb/issue-core.
 FROM python:3.12-slim AS runtime
 
-ARG ISSUE_CORE_VERSION=">=0.2,<0.3"
-# Do not name this PIP_INDEX_URL — Docker exposes ARGs as env vars during RUN,
-# and pip treats PIP_INDEX_URL as the sole primary index (excluding PyPI).
-ARG GITEA_PYPI_INDEX_URL=https://gitea.coulomb.social/api/packages/coulomb/pypi/simple/
-
 ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
     PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
     HOME=/home/app
@@ -18,10 +13,11 @@ ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
 # (~/.config/issue-tracker/backends.json).
 RUN useradd --create-home --home-dir /home/app --uid 10001 app
 
-RUN pip install --no-cache-dir \
-        --index-url https://pypi.org/simple \
-        --extra-index-url "${GITEA_PYPI_INDEX_URL}" \
-        "issue-core[api]${ISSUE_CORE_VERSION}"
+WORKDIR /src
+COPY pyproject.toml README.md LICENSE ./
+COPY issue_core ./issue_core
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir --index-url https://pypi.org/simple ".[api]" \
+    && rm -rf /src
 
 COPY docker-entrypoint.sh /usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh
 RUN chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh
@@ -30,4 +26,4 @@ USER app
 EXPOSE 8765
 
 # Entrypoint renders backends.json from env, then execs the server.
-ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh"]
+ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh"]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/k8s/railiance/deployment.yaml b/k8s/railiance/deployment.yaml
index 2b72b7f..88f8ccc 100644
--- a/k8s/railiance/deployment.yaml
+++ b/k8s/railiance/deployment.yaml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ spec:
       # docs). Add imagePullSecrets: [{name: gitea-registry}] if it becomes private.
       containers:
         - name: issue-core
-          image: gitea.coulomb.social/coulomb/issue-core:0.2.0
+          image: gitea.coulomb.social/coulomb/issue-core:0.2.1
           imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
           ports:
             - name: http