diff --git a/api/Dockerfile b/api/Dockerfile
index 239b614..7a0ac92 100644
--- a/api/Dockerfile
+++ b/api/Dockerfile
@@ -2,14 +2,15 @@ FROM python:3.12-slim AS base
 WORKDIR /app
 RUN pip install uv
 
-FROM base AS development
-# python:3.12-slim has no bare 'python' binary; without this uv invalidates the baked venv on every start
-RUN ln -sf /usr/local/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/python
+FROM python:3.12-slim AS development
+WORKDIR /app
 COPY pyproject.toml .
 COPY src/ src/
-RUN uv sync
-COPY . .
-CMD ["uv", "run", "uvicorn", "rehearsalhub.main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000", "--reload"]
+# Install directly into system Python — no venv, so uvicorn's multiprocessing.spawn
+# subprocess inherits the same interpreter and can always find rehearsalhub
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -e "."
+# ./api/src is mounted as a volume at runtime; the editable .pth file points here
+CMD ["python3", "-m", "uvicorn", "rehearsalhub.main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000", "--reload"]
 
 FROM base AS lint
 COPY pyproject.toml .