diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4f618f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+name: CI
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: [main]
+    tags: ['v*.*.*']
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
+jobs:
+  docker:
+    name: Build & Push Docker image
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    # Only publishes for a real version tag or an explicit manual run --
+    # never for an ordinary push to main. Matches omnibioai-security-audit's
+    # own tag-gated convention; workflow_dispatch is additionally allowed
+    # here so this can be validated once before the first real tag push,
+    # the same way that repo's own pipeline was validated with -ci-test
+    # tags before trusting it for a real release.
+    if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/v') || github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch'
+    permissions:
+      contents: read
+      packages: write
+
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
+      - name: Log in to GHCR
+        uses: docker/login-action@v3
+        with:
+          registry: ghcr.io
+          username: ${{ github.actor }}
+          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+
+      - name: Extract metadata
+        id: meta
+        uses: docker/metadata-action@v5
+        with:
+          images: ghcr.io/${{ github.repository }}
+          tags: |
+            type=semver,pattern={{version}}
+            type=raw,value=latest
+            type=sha,prefix=sha-,format=short
+
+      - name: Set up Docker Buildx
+        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3
+
+      # Build context is this repo alone (`.`) -- see the Dockerfile's own
+      # comment for why the previous parent-directory/sibling-COPY
+      # requirement no longer applies. IAM_CLIENT_READ_TOKEN must be a
+      # fine-grained PAT scoped to Contents:Read on omnibioai-iam-client
+      # only; it is NOT created or assumed present by this workflow. If
+      # the secret is missing, this step fails at the private-dependency
+      # install inside the Dockerfile's RUN --mount=type=secret layer --
+      # a configuration gap to fix by adding the repo secret, not by
+      # working around it here.
+      - name: Build and push
+        uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
+        with:
+          context: .
+          push: true
+          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
+          labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}
+          secrets: |
+            github_token=${{ secrets.IAM_CLIENT_READ_TOKEN }}
+          cache-from: type=gha
+          cache-to: type=gha,mode=max
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 03b245b..72f08c9 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,28 +1,40 @@
+# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
 FROM python:3.11-slim
 
 RUN apt-get update \
- && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends build-essential curl \
+ && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends build-essential curl git \
  && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 WORKDIR /app
 
-# Build context is the parent directory (/home/manish/Desktop/machine)
-# so sibling repos are accessible during the build.
-
-# Install IAM client SDK from source, then discard the source tree.
-# Re-added: removed as dead weight in a88f6ac when nothing imported it;
-# app/services/iam_client.py now uses it for RS256/JWKS/HS256 token
-# verification (IAM Foundation gateway integration).
-COPY omnibioai-iam-client /tmp/omnibioai-iam-client
-RUN pip install --no-cache-dir /tmp/omnibioai-iam-client \
- && rm -rf /tmp/omnibioai-iam-client
-
-# Install gateway Python dependencies.
-COPY omnibioai-api-gateway/requirements.txt requirements.txt
-RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
-
-# Copy the gateway service source.
-COPY omnibioai-api-gateway .
+# GHCR release follow-up: build context is now this repo alone (`.`), not
+# the parent directory -- the previous COPY omnibioai-iam-client /tmp/...
+# step required a sibling checkout, which no GitHub Actions workflow in
+# this org has ever been able to do for a *private* sibling repo. Adopts
+# the same pattern already proven in production by omnibioai-tes and
+# omnibioai-rag instead: pyproject.toml declares omnibioai-iam-client as a
+# pinned git+https dependency (private repo -- GitHub Packages has no
+# PyPI-format registry), and `pip install .` re-resolves ALL declared
+# deps including direct-URL ones (it does not trust a same-named package
+# already being installed the way it does for plain version-range
+# requirements), so the token must be available for pip's own git clone
+# here, not just a separate pre-install step.
+COPY pyproject.toml .
+COPY app/ ./app/
+
+# Uses a BuildKit secret mount (not ARG/ENV) -- ARG/ENV values get echoed
+# into BuildKit's progress output for the RUN instruction that uses them,
+# leaking the token into build logs. A secret mount is never printed and
+# never persists in any image layer. hatchling is pre-installed explicitly
+# (unlike omnibioai-tes/omnibioai-rag, both setuptools-backed) because this
+# repo's own [build-system] uses hatchling.build -- confirmed necessary by
+# an actual local build; see pyproject.toml's [tool.hatch.metadata] for the
+# one other hatchling-specific allowance the pinned dependency below needs.
+RUN --mount=type=secret,id=github_token \
+    git config --global url."https://$(cat /run/secrets/github_token)@github.com/".insteadOf "https://github.com/" \
+ && pip install --no-cache-dir hatchling \
+ && pip install --no-cache-dir --upgrade-strategy only-if-needed . \
+ && git config --global --unset url."https://$(cat /run/secrets/github_token)@github.com/".insteadOf
 
 EXPOSE 8080
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 0cf3a20..847809a 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -12,6 +12,18 @@ dependencies = [
     "httpx",
     "redis[asyncio]",
     "pyjwt",
+
+    # IAM Foundation gateway integration: app/services/iam_client.py uses
+    # AsyncIAMClient for RS256/JWKS/HS256 token verification. Pinned direct
+    # git reference -- omnibioai-iam-client is a private repo distributed
+    # via git+https, not a package index (GitHub Packages has no
+    # PyPI-format registry). Same pinned-tag distribution convention and
+    # version (latest, additive/backward-compatible UserContext fields) as
+    # omnibioai-tes/omnibioai-rag's own pyproject.toml entries for this
+    # same dependency -- see [tool.hatch.metadata] below for the one
+    # allowance this repo specifically needs that those two don't (they're
+    # both setuptools-backed, not hatchling).
+    "omnibioai-iam-client @ git+https://github.com/OmniBioAI/omnibioai-iam-client.git@v0.1.3",
 ]
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
@@ -25,6 +37,17 @@ dev = [
 [tool.hatch.build.targets.wheel]
 packages = ["app"]
 
+# Required for the pinned git+https omnibioai-iam-client dependency above:
+# hatchling's own metadata validation otherwise rejects any PEP 508 "direct
+# reference" (a `name @ <url>` dependency) with
+# "Dependency ... cannot be a direct reference unless field
+# tool.hatch.metadata.allow-direct-references is set to true" -- confirmed
+# by an actual local `pip install .` build failing with exactly that error
+# before this was added. Scoped to direct references only; does not
+# otherwise relax dependency resolution.
+[tool.hatch.metadata]
+allow-direct-references = true
+
 [tool.pytest.ini_options]
 testpaths = ["tests"]
 python_files = ["test_*.py"]