diff --git a/backend/pom.xml b/backend/pom.xml
index aa7d2a5..ad91611 100644
--- a/backend/pom.xml
+++ b/backend/pom.xml
@@ -159,8 +159,8 @@
         <version>3.5.1</version>
         <configuration>
           <from>
-            <!-- distroless glibc base — multi-arch (amd64 + arm64), matches GraalVM native binary ABI -->
-            <image>gcr.io/distroless/base-nossl-debian12</image>
+            <!-- distroless glibc base — includes libz + libssl needed by GraalVM native binary -->
+            <image>gcr.io/distroless/base-debian12</image>
           </from>
           <to>
             <image>zot.immich-ad.ovh/ai-teacher-backend</image>
@@ -173,26 +173,28 @@
             <ports>
               <port>8080</port>
             </ports>
+            <!-- invoke the native binary directly — no JVM -->
+            <entrypoint>
+              <arg>/app/ai-teacher-backend</arg>
+            </entrypoint>
           </container>
-          <pluginExtensions>
-            <pluginExtension>
-              <implementation>
-                com.google.cloud.tools.jib.maven.extension.nativeimage.JibNativeImageExtension
-              </implementation>
-              <properties>
-                <!-- Must match <imageName> in native-maven-plugin -->
-                <imageName>ai-teacher-backend</imageName>
-              </properties>
-            </pluginExtension>
-          </pluginExtensions>
+          <!-- copy the GraalVM-compiled binary from target/ into /app/ -->
+          <extraDirectories>
+            <paths>
+              <path>
+                <from>${project.build.directory}</from>
+                <into>/app</into>
+                <includes>ai-teacher-backend</includes>
+              </path>
+            </paths>
+            <permissions>
+              <permission>
+                <file>/app/ai-teacher-backend</file>
+                <mode>755</mode>
+              </permission>
+            </permissions>
+          </extraDirectories>
         </configuration>
-        <dependencies>
-          <dependency>
-            <groupId>com.google.cloud.tools</groupId>
-            <artifactId>jib-native-image-extension-maven</artifactId>
-            <version>0.1.0</version>
-          </dependency>
-        </dependencies>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>