diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 9254fcf..f1c90df 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,26 +1,34 @@
+FROM node:22-bookworm-slim AS ui
+
+WORKDIR /ui
+COPY frontend/package.json frontend/package-lock.json ./
+RUN npm ci
+COPY frontend ./
+RUN npm run build
+
+
 FROM nvidia/cuda:13.3.0-runtime-ubuntu24.04
 
 ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
     ELY_EYE_HOME=/data/ely-eye \
     ELY_EYE_RUNTIME_BACKEND=sglang \
-    ELY_EYE_SGLANG_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8000/v1
+    ELY_EYE_SGLANG_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8000/v1 \
+    ELY_EYE_UI_DIR=/srv/ely-eye/ui
 
 WORKDIR /app
 
 RUN apt-get update \
-    && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends python3.12 python3.12-venv python3-pip nodejs npm ffmpeg \
+    && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends python3.12 python3.12-venv python3-pip ffmpeg \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 COPY backend ./backend
-COPY frontend ./frontend
-COPY README.md PRD.md ./
+COPY README.md ./
 
 RUN python3.12 -m venv /opt/ely-eye \
     && /opt/ely-eye/bin/pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel \
-    && /opt/ely-eye/bin/pip install -e ./backend \
-    && cd frontend \
-    && npm install \
-    && npm run build
+    && /opt/ely-eye/bin/pip install ./backend
+
+COPY --from=ui /ui/dist /srv/ely-eye/ui
 
 EXPOSE 8765
 CMD ["/opt/ely-eye/bin/ely-eye", "serve", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8765"]
diff --git a/backend/src/ely_eye/api.py b/backend/src/ely_eye/api.py
index d38e8da..080facf 100644
--- a/backend/src/ely_eye/api.py
+++ b/backend/src/ely_eye/api.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ from typing import Annotated
 
 from fastapi import Depends, FastAPI, File, HTTPException, UploadFile
 from fastapi.middleware.cors import CORSMiddleware
+from fastapi.staticfiles import StaticFiles
 from pydantic import BaseModel
 
 from . import __version__
@@ -339,6 +340,15 @@ def create_app() -> FastAPI:
             "cartridges": CartridgeService(settings, db).list_manifests(),
         }
 
+    mounted_ui = get_settings().ui_dir
+    if mounted_ui is not None:
+        if not mounted_ui.is_dir():
+            raise SystemExit(
+                f"ui_dir {mounted_ui} is set but holds no built interface; "
+                "run `npm run build` in frontend/ or unset ELY_EYE_UI_DIR"
+            )
+        app.mount("/", StaticFiles(directory=mounted_ui, html=True), name="ui")
+
     return app
 
 
diff --git a/backend/src/ely_eye/config.py b/backend/src/ely_eye/config.py
index fb0ef79..d39cf30 100644
--- a/backend/src/ely_eye/config.py
+++ b/backend/src/ely_eye/config.py
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ class Settings(BaseSettings):
     runtime_backend: Literal["sglang", "transformers"] = "transformers"
     sglang_base_url: str = "http://127.0.0.1:8000/v1"
     sglang_api_key: str = "ely-eye-local"
+    ui_dir: Path | None = None
     dense_embeddings_enabled: bool = False
     live_context_tokens: int = 262_144
     extreme_context_tokens: int = 1_010_000
diff --git a/backend/tests/test_serve_ui.py b/backend/tests/test_serve_ui.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..32d78f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/tests/test_serve_ui.py
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+"""The container story only holds if a built interface is actually served."""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pytest
+from fastapi.testclient import TestClient
+
+from ely_eye import api as api_module
+from ely_eye.config import Settings
+
+
+def _client(settings: Settings, monkeypatch) -> TestClient:
+    monkeypatch.setattr(api_module, "get_settings", lambda: settings)
+    return TestClient(api_module.create_app())
+
+
+def test_a_built_interface_is_served_from_the_api_origin(tmp_path: Path, monkeypatch) -> None:
+    ui = tmp_path / "dist"
+    ui.mkdir()
+    (ui / "index.html").write_text("<html><body>ely-eye</body></html>", encoding="utf-8")
+    settings = Settings(home=tmp_path / "home", ui_dir=ui)
+    client = _client(settings, monkeypatch)
+    answer = client.get("/")
+    assert answer.status_code == 200 and "ely-eye" in answer.text
+    assert client.get("/api/status").status_code == 200
+
+
+def test_a_ui_directory_that_was_never_built_names_the_fix(tmp_path: Path, monkeypatch) -> None:
+    settings = Settings(home=tmp_path / "home", ui_dir=tmp_path / "dist")
+    monkeypatch.setattr(api_module, "get_settings", lambda: settings)
+    with pytest.raises(SystemExit, match="npm run build"):
+        api_module.create_app()
+
+
+def test_no_ui_directory_means_the_api_alone_answers(tmp_path: Path, monkeypatch) -> None:
+    settings = Settings(home=tmp_path / "home")
+    client = _client(settings, monkeypatch)
+    assert client.get("/").status_code == 404
+    assert client.get("/api/status").status_code == 200