diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index d3600ce7..0bfe06ee 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,21 +1,15 @@
 # context-guru-proxy: the LLM-proxy integration and eval-containers gateway.
 #
-# The module uses a local `replace github.com/maximhq/bifrost/core => ../bifrost/core`,
-# so the build context MUST be the PARENT directory that contains both repos:
+# bifrost is an ordinary published dependency, so the build context is just this
+# repo:
 #
-#   docker build -f lab-context-engineering/Dockerfile -t context-guru-proxy .
+#   docker build -t context-guru-proxy .
 #
-# (run from .../context-engineering/). CI that builds standalone should either
-# `go mod vendor` first or switch the replace to a pinned published bifrost.
-#
-# CGO is required (tree-sitter for the skeleton component), so the final image is
-# glibc-based. It also carries a shell + curl for the eval-containers
-# start/health scripts under /opt/gateway.
+# The image is glibc-based because CGO is enabled below. It also carries a shell +
+# curl for the eval-containers start/health scripts under /opt/gateway.
 FROM golang:1.26 AS build
 WORKDIR /src
-COPY bifrost/ ./bifrost/
-COPY lab-context-engineering/ ./lab-context-engineering/
-WORKDIR /src/lab-context-engineering
+COPY . .
 ARG VERSION=dev
 ARG COMMIT=none
 RUN CGO_ENABLED=1 go build \
@@ -26,8 +20,8 @@ FROM debian:bookworm-slim
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends ca-certificates curl \
 	&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 COPY --from=build /out/context-guru-proxy /opt/gateway/main
-COPY lab-context-engineering/deploy/eval-containers/start /opt/gateway/start
-COPY lab-context-engineering/deploy/eval-containers/health /opt/gateway/health
+COPY deploy/eval-containers/start /opt/gateway/start
+COPY deploy/eval-containers/health /opt/gateway/health
 RUN chmod +x /opt/gateway/start /opt/gateway/health
 EXPOSE 4000
 # Default entrypoint is the eval-containers gateway wrapper; override with
diff --git a/deploy/eval-containers/README.md b/deploy/eval-containers/README.md
index 80cd9367..51fee215 100644
--- a/deploy/eval-containers/README.md
+++ b/deploy/eval-containers/README.md
@@ -6,12 +6,11 @@ provider. Swap it in with `EVAL_GATEWAY_IMAGE` — no agent or benchmark changes
 
 ## Build
 
-The module uses a local `replace` to `../bifrost/core`, so build from the parent
-directory that holds both repos:
+The build context is this repo — bifrost is an ordinary published dependency, so no
+sibling checkout is needed:
 
 ```sh
-cd .../context-engineering
-docker build -f lab-context-engineering/Dockerfile -t context-guru-proxy:latest .
+docker build -t context-guru-proxy:latest .
 ```
 
 ## Run under eval-containers
@@ -41,5 +40,3 @@ savings per component; per-task attribution improves once a session id is stampe
 
 - OTel `gen_ai` spans are not yet emitted (eval-containers' otelcol ingests them);
   today savings come from `/stats`.
-- The image build needs the parent-dir context (or `go mod vendor`) until bifrost
-  is pinned to a published version.
diff --git a/examples/llm-d-service/README.md b/examples/llm-d-service/README.md
index 1d4a431b..1eff7df9 100644
--- a/examples/llm-d-service/README.md
+++ b/examples/llm-d-service/README.md
@@ -73,13 +73,8 @@ See a real run of all three on one input, with the full `messages` before and af
 ## 3. Prerequisites
 
 - **Go 1.26** and a **C toolchain** (`CGO_ENABLED=1` — the `skeleton` component links tree-sitter via cgo).
-- A sibling **bifrost** checkout next to this repo (the module pins it with a local `replace` to
-  `../bifrost/core`). Directory layout:
-  ```
-  <parent>/
-    context-guru/     ← this repo
-    bifrost/          ← https://github.com/maximhq/bifrost
-  ```
+- Nothing else: **bifrost** is an ordinary published module dependency (`go.mod`), so this repo
+  builds standalone from a plain clone.
 - For the two **LLM** configs only: access to an LLM endpoint (any OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible
   API, including a gateway) and its credentials.
 
diff --git a/examples/llm-d-service/build.sh b/examples/llm-d-service/build.sh
index e27f1017..49642979 100755
--- a/examples/llm-d-service/build.sh
+++ b/examples/llm-d-service/build.sh
@@ -2,9 +2,8 @@
 # Build the context-guru compaction service (bin/context-guru-proxy).
 #
 # Requires Go 1.26 and a C toolchain: CGO_ENABLED=1 is set below because the
-# `skeleton` component links tree-sitter via cgo. The module pins bifrost with a
-# local `replace` to ../bifrost/core, so a sibling bifrost checkout must exist
-# next to the context-guru repo (see the repo README "Install").
+# `skeleton` component links tree-sitter via cgo. bifrost is an ordinary published
+# dependency, so this repo builds standalone — no sibling checkout needed.
 set -euo pipefail
 
 repo_root="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/../.." && pwd)"