diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index dcccc01..a883368 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -28,6 +28,16 @@ COPY package.json package-lock.json ./
 # builds itself on install, which is what lets it be named by a git URL rather than fetched from a
 # package registry this mesh does not yet run.
 RUN npm install --no-audit --no-fund
+# **And then compile the toolkit, because npm did not.** It declares a `prepare` script, which is
+# the hook npm is supposed to run after installing a package from git — and this npm does not run
+# it, so the package arrives as sources with every one of its entry points pointing at a compiled
+# directory that is not there. The compile is therefore done here, explicitly: install the toolkit's
+# own build dependencies inside it, build it, then drop them again so they do not travel into the
+# image. Doing it by hand rather than relying on the hook is also the honest arrangement — a build
+# that silently depended on a hook firing would break the day it stopped, in the same invisible way.
+RUN npm --prefix node_modules/@novox/mesh-sdk install --no-audit --no-fund \
+      && npm --prefix node_modules/@novox/mesh-sdk run build \
+      && npm --prefix node_modules/@novox/mesh-sdk prune --omit=dev
 COPY tsconfig.json ./
 COPY src ./src
 RUN npm run build