diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
index 9e00d76..f9a33a6 100644
--- a/.dockerignore
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 **/.idea
 **/coverage
 **/tmp
+corpus/
 **/.pytest_cache
 **/.mypy_cache
 **/.ruff_cache
diff --git a/gateway/Dockerfile b/gateway/Dockerfile
index a55b9fd..9145155 100644
--- a/gateway/Dockerfile
+++ b/gateway/Dockerfile
@@ -55,7 +55,6 @@ COPY cmake/ ./cmake/
 COPY engine/ ./engine/
 COPY bindings/ ./bindings/
 COPY gateway/ ./gateway/
-COPY corpus/ ./corpus/
 
 # Configure and build in the same layer. Keeping these operations together
 # avoids Docker/overlayfs timestamp skew causing Ninja to regenerate
@@ -65,7 +64,7 @@ COPY corpus/ ./corpus/
 RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache \
     --mount=type=cache,target=/opt/vcpkg/downloads \
     cmake --preset linux-release \
-    -DPDFENGINE_BUILD_TESTS=ON \
+    -DPDFENGINE_BUILD_TESTS=OFF \
     -DPDFENGINE_WITH_PDFIUM=ON \
     -DPDFENGINE_WITH_SKIA=OFF \
     -DPDFENGINE_WITH_QPDF=ON \
@@ -73,11 +72,7 @@ RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache \
     -DCMAKE_SUPPRESS_REGENERATION=ON \
     && cmake --build out/build/linux-release
 
-# Stage 2: Tester
-FROM builder AS tester
-RUN ctest --test-dir out/build/linux-release --output-on-failure
-
-# Stage 3: Runtime
+# Stage 2: Runtime
 FROM python:3.11-slim
 
 ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
@@ -92,10 +87,15 @@ RUN apt-get update \
         zlib1g \
         libpng16-16 \
         fonts-liberation \
+        libgl1 \
+        libglib2.0-0 \
+        libgomp1 \
+        libsm6 \
+        libxext6 \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 # Install the extension globally so it's not shadowed by the volume mount ./gateway:/home/app
-COPY --from=tester /build/gateway/pdfengine*.so /usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/
+COPY --from=builder /build/gateway/pdfengine*.so /usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/
 
 RUN groupadd --system app \
     && useradd --system --gid app --create-home --home-dir /home/app app
diff --git a/gateway/app/routers/ocr.py b/gateway/app/routers/ocr.py
index 370c90f..f30cf04 100644
--- a/gateway/app/routers/ocr.py
+++ b/gateway/app/routers/ocr.py
@@ -77,9 +77,15 @@ def perform_ocr_on_page(document_id: str, page_index: int) -> OCRPageResponse:
         raise HTTPException(status_code=status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST, detail="Page index out of bounds")
 
     if not ocr_service.is_ocr_available():
+        init_err = ocr_service.get_ocr_init_error()
+        err_detail = (
+            f"RapidOCR engine is not installed or available ({init_err})."
+            if init_err
+            else "RapidOCR engine is not installed or available."
+        )
         raise HTTPException(
             status_code=status.HTTP_503_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE,
-            detail="RapidOCR engine is not installed or available.",
+            detail=err_detail,
         )
 
     try:
diff --git a/gateway/app/services/ocr.py b/gateway/app/services/ocr.py
index 9c3f73f..9ab0926 100644
--- a/gateway/app/services/ocr.py
+++ b/gateway/app/services/ocr.py
@@ -8,11 +8,12 @@ logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 _ocr_engine = None
 _ocr_available = False
+_ocr_init_error: Optional[str] = None
 
 
 def load_ocr() -> bool:
     """Explicitly initializes the RapidOCR engine once during application startup."""
-    global _ocr_engine, _ocr_available
+    global _ocr_engine, _ocr_available, _ocr_init_error
     if _ocr_engine is not None:
         return _ocr_available
 
@@ -20,10 +21,14 @@ def load_ocr() -> bool:
         from rapidocr_onnxruntime import RapidOCR
         _ocr_engine = RapidOCR()
         _ocr_available = True
+        _ocr_init_error = None
+        logger.info("[Startup] RapidOCR engine loaded successfully into memory.")
         print("[Startup] RapidOCR engine loaded successfully into memory.")
     except Exception as e:
         _ocr_engine = None
         _ocr_available = False
+        _ocr_init_error = str(e)
+        logger.error(f"[Startup] Warning: RapidOCR engine initialization failed: {e}", exc_info=True)
         print(f"[Startup] Warning: RapidOCR engine not available: {e}")
 
     return _ocr_available
@@ -37,6 +42,10 @@ def is_ocr_available() -> bool:
     return _ocr_available and _ocr_engine is not None
 
 
+def get_ocr_init_error() -> Optional[str]:
+    return _ocr_init_error
+
+
 
 def recognize_image_bytes(image_bytes: bytes) -> Dict[str, Any]:
     if not is_ocr_available():