diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 95314135..f9c7dce7 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@ COPY --from=frontend_dist / web/dist
 COPY cmd/ cmd/
 COPY internal/ internal/
 COPY migrations/ migrations/
+# The settings contract is a Go package (contracts/settings/v1) that embeds the
+# manifest, so the binary carries the exact bytes it was built from. It lives
+# outside internal/ because clients vendor these files.
+COPY contracts/ contracts/
 ARG BUILD_REVISION
 ARG BUILD_DIRTY=false
 RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/go-build \
diff --git a/Dockerfile.dev b/Dockerfile.dev
index d6b69341..263f824e 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.dev
+++ b/Dockerfile.dev
@@ -29,6 +29,9 @@ COPY --from=frontend /app/web/dist web/dist
 COPY cmd/ cmd/
 COPY internal/ internal/
 COPY migrations/ migrations/
+# See Dockerfile: the settings contract is an embedded Go package outside
+# internal/, so the build fails without it.
+COPY contracts/ contracts/
 
 # Stage 3: Build Go binary for dev using a local plugin SDK checkout passed via
 # BuildKit named context `silo_plugin_sdk`.