diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 2711478673..2256680762 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ ARG GID=0
 FROM --platform=$BUILDPLATFORM node:22-alpine3.20 AS build
 ARG BUILD_HASH
 ARG USE_SLIM
+ARG UID
+ARG GID
 
 # Set Node.js options (heap limit Allocation failed - JavaScript heap out of memory)
 # ENV NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=4096"
@@ -44,6 +46,12 @@ ENV APP_BUILD_HASH=${BUILD_HASH}
 RUN npm run build && \
     if [ "$USE_SLIM" = "true" ]; then find build -type f -name '*.map' -delete; fi
 
+# Prepare backend ownership before the final copy so static assets occupy one layer.
+# Group 0 write access lets arbitrary OpenShift UIDs update these assets at startup.
+RUN chown -R $UID:$GID /app/backend && \
+    chgrp -R 0 /app/backend/open_webui/static && \
+    chmod -R g=u /app/backend/open_webui/static
+
 ######## WebUI backend ########
 FROM python:3.11-slim-bookworm AS base
 
@@ -132,10 +140,12 @@ RUN if [ "$USE_SLIM" = "true" ] && { [ "$USE_CUDA" = "true" ] || [ "$USE_OLLAMA"
 # Keep the slim runtime free of local document/audio processing tools.
 RUN apt-get update && \
     apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-    git curl jq ca-certificates zstd \
+    git curl jq ca-certificates \
     && if [ "$USE_SLIM" != "true" ]; then \
     apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
     build-essential pandoc gcc libmariadb-dev ffmpeg libsm6 libxext6; \
+    fi && if [ "$USE_OLLAMA" = "true" ]; then \
+    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends zstd; \
     fi && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 # install python dependencies
@@ -193,19 +203,8 @@ COPY --chown=$UID:$GID --from=build /app/build /app/build
 COPY --chown=$UID:$GID --from=build /app/CHANGELOG.md /app/CHANGELOG.md
 COPY --chown=$UID:$GID --from=build /app/package.json /app/package.json
 
-# copy backend files
-COPY --chown=$UID:$GID ./backend .
-
-# The backend rewrites its bundled static assets (favicons, splash, manifest,
-# loader.js, ...) under open_webui/static at startup. Make that directory
-# writable by an arbitrary UID -- which under OpenShift's restricted SCC is
-# always a member of GID 0 -- so those writes don't fail with EACCES and crash
-# the boot log with "[Errno 13] Permission denied". `chmod -R g=u` mirrors the
-# owner bits onto the group (the Red Hat arbitrary-UID idiom). This is applied
-# unconditionally because it targets a directory the app writes on every start;
-# the broader, opt-in USE_PERMISSION_HARDENING below covers the rest of /app.
-RUN chgrp -R 0 /app/backend/open_webui/static && \
-    chmod -R g=u /app/backend/open_webui/static
+# copy backend files with the ownership and static permissions prepared above
+COPY --from=build /app/backend .
 
 EXPOSE 8080
 
diff --git a/backend/requirements-slim.txt b/backend/requirements-slim.txt
index 31c7f78689..37f1213fa9 100644
--- a/backend/requirements-slim.txt
+++ b/backend/requirements-slim.txt
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ pycrdt==0.13.1
 redis==8.0.1
 hiredis==3.4.0
 
-APScheduler==3.11.2
 python-dateutil==2.9.0.post0
 pytz==2026.2
 
diff --git a/backend/requirements.txt b/backend/requirements.txt
index ded3b1d24d..9e7f798360 100644
--- a/backend/requirements.txt
+++ b/backend/requirements.txt
@@ -46,7 +46,6 @@ mcp==1.27.2
 
 openai==2.29.0
 anthropic==0.86.0
-google-genai==1.66.0
 
 langchain-community==0.4.2
 langchain-classic==1.0.7
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index f1c6f4c283..02f72633af 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -54,7 +54,6 @@ dependencies = [
 
     "openai==2.29.0",
     "anthropic==0.86.0",
-    "google-genai==1.66.0",
 
     "langchain-community==0.4.2",
     "langchain-classic==1.0.7",
diff --git a/uv.lock b/uv.lock
index 0cf032981f..dde37e4f73 100644
--- a/uv.lock
+++ b/uv.lock
@@ -1392,11 +1392,6 @@ wheels = [
     { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/44/71/c0321dc6d63d99946da45f7c06299b934e4f7f7da5c4f14d101bcb39adf1/google_auth-2.55.0-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:a17cef9dedf98c4ebae2fb0c48c8f75952c877cbc2efe09f329ef16c2783d88a", size = 252400, upload-time = "2026-06-15T22:33:14.992Z" },
 ]
 
-[package.optional-dependencies]
-requests = [
-    { name = "requests" },
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "google-cloud-core"
 version = "2.6.0"
@@ -1447,27 +1442,6 @@ wheels = [
     { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/9c/97/7d75fe37a7a6ed171a2cf17117177e7aab7e6e0d115858741b41e9dd4254/google_crc32c-1.8.0-pp311-pypy311_pp73-manylinux2014_aarch64.manylinux_2_17_aarch64.whl", hash = "sha256:f639065ea2042d5c034bf258a9f085eaa7af0cd250667c0635a3118e8f92c69c", size = 28800, upload-time = "2025-12-16T00:40:30.322Z" },
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "google-genai"
-version = "1.66.0"
-source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }
-dependencies = [
-    { name = "anyio" },
-    { name = "distro" },
-    { name = "google-auth", extra = ["requests"] },
-    { name = "httpx" },
-    { name = "pydantic" },
-    { name = "requests" },
-    { name = "sniffio" },
-    { name = "tenacity" },
-    { name = "typing-extensions" },
-    { name = "websockets" },
-]
-sdist = { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/9b/ba/0b343b0770d4710ad2979fd9301d7caa56c940174d5361ed4a7cc4979241/google_genai-1.66.0.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:ffc01647b65046bca6387320057aa51db0ad64bcc72c8e3e914062acfa5f7c49", size = 504386, upload-time = "2026-03-04T22:15:28.156Z" }
-wheels = [
-    { url = "https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/d1/dd/403949d922d4e261b08b64aaa132af4e456c3b15c8e2a2d9e6ef693f66e2/google_genai-1.66.0-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:7f127a39cf695277104ce4091bb26e417c59bb46e952ff3699c3a982d9c474ee", size = 732174, upload-time = "2026-03-04T22:15:26.63Z" },
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "google-resumable-media"
 version = "2.10.0"
@@ -2804,7 +2778,6 @@ dependencies = [
     { name = "faster-whisper" },
     { name = "ftfy" },
     { name = "google-cloud-storage" },
-    { name = "google-genai" },
     { name = "googleapis-common-protos" },
     { name = "hiredis" },
     { name = "httpx", extra = ["brotli", "cli", "http2", "socks", "zstd"] },
@@ -2931,7 +2904,6 @@ requires-dist = [
     { name = "faster-whisper", specifier = "==1.2.1" },
     { name = "ftfy", specifier = "==6.3.1" },
     { name = "google-cloud-storage", specifier = "==3.9.0" },
-    { name = "google-genai", specifier = "==1.66.0" },
     { name = "googleapis-common-protos", specifier = "==1.75.0" },
     { name = "hiredis", specifier = "==3.4.0" },
     { name = "httpx", extras = ["brotli", "cli", "http2", "socks", "zstd"], specifier = "==0.28.1" },