diff --git a/workspace/sprint_1_2/CODEBASE/deps/implementation/backend_deploy/Dockerfile b/workspace/sprint_1_2/CODEBASE/deps/implementation/backend_deploy/Dockerfile
index 2937b40..0add326 100644
--- a/workspace/sprint_1_2/CODEBASE/deps/implementation/backend_deploy/Dockerfile
+++ b/workspace/sprint_1_2/CODEBASE/deps/implementation/backend_deploy/Dockerfile
@@ -25,12 +25,11 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
 # Copy requirements first so this layer is cached unless deps change
 COPY requirements.txt .
 
-# Build wheel files for all dependencies AND their transitive dependencies.
-# --wheel-dir=/wheels: write .whl files to the wheelhouse directory
-# (no --no-deps: we want the full dependency tree pre-compiled)
-# RUN python -m pip install --no-cache-dir --upgrade pip && \
-#     python -m pip wheel --no-cache-dir --wheel-dir=/wheels -r requirements.txt
-RUN python -m pip wheel --no-cache-dir --wheel-dir=/wheels -r requirements.txt
+# FIX: Create an isolated venv to compile wheels so Kaniko doesn't corrupt global pip vendor files
+RUN python -m venv /opt/wheelhouse-env && \
+    /opt/wheelhouse-env/bin/pip install --no-cache-dir --upgrade pip && \
+    /opt/wheelhouse-env/bin/pip wheel --no-cache-dir --wheel-dir=/wheels -r requirements.txt
+
 # =============================================================================
 # Stage 2: Application Builder
 # Creates a venv and installs dependencies from the local wheelhouse.
@@ -79,11 +78,6 @@ FROM python:3.12-slim-bookworm AS runtime
 
 WORKDIR /app
 
-# Create non-root user
-# RUN groupadd -r appgroup && useradd -r -g appgroup -d /app -s /sbin/nologin appuser
-
-# # Copy the entire venv from builder
-# COPY --from=builder --chown=appuser:appgroup /opt/venv /opt/venv
 # Step 2: Assign an explicit numeric ID (like 999) when creating the user/group
 RUN groupadd -g 999 appgroup && \
     useradd -r -u 999 -g appgroup -d /app -s /sbin/nologin appuser
@@ -115,5 +109,5 @@ EXPOSE 8001
 HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=5s --start-period=10s --retries=3 \
     CMD python -c "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:8001/health')" || exit 1
 
-# # Run the CV inference server
+# Run the CV inference server
 CMD ["python", "-m", "backend.cv_inference_server"]
\ No newline at end of file