diff --git a/docker/api.Dockerfile b/docker/api.Dockerfile
index 1bf3af5..2acb772 100644
--- a/docker/api.Dockerfile
+++ b/docker/api.Dockerfile
@@ -17,7 +17,11 @@ RUN apt-get update \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 COPY pyproject.toml ./
 COPY app ./app
-RUN pip install --no-cache-dir .
+# Editable install so site-packages resolves `app` by absolute path (/app)
+# rather than a frozen copy — consistent with worker.Dockerfile, and keeps
+# this correct even though uvicorn --reload happens to resolve its own
+# import string against the CWD regardless.
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -e .
 
 FROM base AS runtime
 RUN useradd --create-home --uid 1000 aurora
diff --git a/docker/worker.Dockerfile b/docker/worker.Dockerfile
index a525904..92b1e84 100644
--- a/docker/worker.Dockerfile
+++ b/docker/worker.Dockerfile
@@ -17,7 +17,14 @@ RUN apt-get update \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 COPY pyproject.toml ./
 COPY app ./app
-RUN pip install --no-cache-dir .
+# Editable install: site-packages ends up pointing at this /app directory by
+# absolute path rather than a frozen copy of it. That matters because the
+# `arq` console-script (unlike uvicorn --reload, which explicitly resolves
+# its app import against the CWD) just imports whatever site-packages says
+# `app` is — a non-editable install would permanently freeze the worker's
+# code at whatever this build saw, silently ignoring the dev bind mount
+# (docker-compose.yml's `./app:/app/app`) on every later `restart`.
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -e .
 
 FROM base AS runtime
 RUN useradd --create-home --uid 1000 aurora