diff --git a/.github/workflows/check-pipecat-sync.yml b/.github/workflows/check-pipecat-sync.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 5828c8b..0000000
--- a/.github/workflows/check-pipecat-sync.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,23 +0,0 @@
-name: Check Pipecat Version Sync
-
-on:
-  pull_request:
-    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
-
-jobs:
-  check-sync:
-    name: Verify Pipecat Versions Match
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    
-    steps:
-      - name: Checkout code
-        uses: actions/checkout@v4
-        with:
-          submodules: true
-          fetch-depth: 0
-      
-      - name: Make scripts executable
-        run: chmod +x scripts/*.sh
-      
-      - name: Check pipecat version synchronization
-        run: ./scripts/check_pipecat_sync.sh
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.github/workflows/docker-image.yml b/.github/workflows/docker-image.yml
index d2b9962..20d0de3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/docker-image.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/docker-image.yml
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ jobs:
       matrix:
         service: 
           - "dograh-api|api/Dockerfile|."
-          - "dograh-ui|ui/Dockerfile|./ui"
+          - "dograh-ui|ui/Dockerfile|."
 
     steps:
       - name: Checkout repository
@@ -27,23 +27,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           submodules: true  # Only for version check, not used in build
 
-      - name: Check pipecat version sync
-        id: version-check
-        run: |
-          chmod +x scripts/check_pipecat_sync.sh
-          
-          # Capture the output for version details
-          if OUTPUT=$(./scripts/check_pipecat_sync.sh 2>&1); then
-            echo "version_mismatch=false" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
-          else
-            echo "version_mismatch=true" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
-            # Extract version info from the output
-            SUBMODULE_VERSION=$(echo "$OUTPUT" | grep "Submodule commit:" | awk '{print $3}')
-            DOCKERFILE_VERSION=$(echo "$OUTPUT" | grep "Dockerfile commit:" | awk '{print $3}')
-            echo "submodule_version=${SUBMODULE_VERSION}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
-            echo "dockerfile_version=${DOCKERFILE_VERSION}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
-            # Don't fail the build, just note the mismatch
-          fi
+      # Pipecat version check removed - now using local submodule
 
       - name: Set up QEMU  # Enables cross-platform builds (e.g., arm64)
         uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@v3
@@ -64,6 +48,19 @@ jobs:
           username: ${{ secrets.GHCR_USERNAME }}
           password: ${{ secrets.GHCR_TOKEN }}
 
+      - name: Set build variables
+        id: build-vars
+        run: |
+          # Parse matrix entry and set variables early (before build)
+          SERVICE="${{ matrix.service }}"
+          IMAGE_NAME=$(echo "$SERVICE" | cut -d '|' -f1)
+          SHORT_SHA=${COMMIT_SHA::8}
+          
+          # Export for use in subsequent steps
+          echo "image_name=${IMAGE_NAME}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+          echo "short_sha=${SHORT_SHA}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+          echo "service=${SERVICE}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+      
       - name: Build and Push ${{ matrix.service }}
         id: docker-build
         run: |
@@ -104,39 +101,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           payload: |
             {
-              "text": "✅ Docker Build Successful",
-              "blocks": [
-                {
-                  "type": "header",
-                  "text": {
-                    "type": "plain_text",
-                    "text": "✅ Docker Build & Push Successful"
-                  }
-                },
-                {
-                  "type": "section",
-                  "text": {
-                    "type": "mrkdwn",
-                    "text": "*Service:* `${{ steps.docker-build.outputs.image_name }}`\n*Commit:* `${{ steps.docker-build.outputs.short_sha }}`\n*Branch:* `${{ github.ref_name }}`\n*Author:* ${{ github.actor }}"
-                  }
-                },
-                {
-                  "type": "section",
-                  "text": {
-                    "type": "mrkdwn",
-                    "text": "*📦 Published Tags:*\n• DockerHub: `${{ steps.docker-build.outputs.dockerhub_tag }}`\n• DockerHub: `${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}/${{ steps.docker-build.outputs.image_name }}:latest`\n• GHCR: `${{ steps.docker-build.outputs.ghcr_tag }}`\n• GHCR: `ghcr.io/${{ secrets.GHCR_USERNAME }}/${{ steps.docker-build.outputs.image_name }}:latest`"
-                  }
-                },
-                {
-                  "type": "context",
-                  "elements": [
-                    {
-                      "type": "mrkdwn",
-                      "text": "${{ steps.version-check.outputs.version_mismatch == 'true' && format('⚠️ Warning: Pipecat version mismatch detected - <@{0}> <@{1}> please sync versions', secrets.SLACK_DEV1_ID, secrets.SLACK_DEV2_ID) || '✅ Pipecat versions in sync' }}"
-                    }
-                  ]
-                }
-              ]
+              "text": "✅ Docker Build Successful - ${{ steps.build-vars.outputs.image_name }} (${{ steps.build-vars.outputs.short_sha }}) on ${{ github.ref_name }} by ${{ github.actor }}"
             }
       
       # Failure notification
@@ -148,28 +113,5 @@ jobs:
         with:
           payload: |
             {
-              "text": "❌ Docker Build Failed",
-              "blocks": [
-                {
-                  "type": "header",
-                  "text": {
-                    "type": "plain_text",
-                    "text": "❌ Docker Build Failed"
-                  }
-                },
-                {
-                  "type": "section",
-                  "text": {
-                    "type": "mrkdwn",
-                    "text": "*Service:* `${{ steps.docker-build.outputs.image_name || matrix.service }}`\n*Branch:* `${{ github.ref_name }}`\n*Author:* ${{ github.actor }}\n*Workflow:* <${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}|View Details>"
-                  }
-                },
-                {
-                  "type": "section",
-                  "text": {
-                    "type": "mrkdwn",
-                    "text": "${{ steps.version-check.outputs.version_mismatch == 'true' && format('*🔴 Pipecat Version Mismatch:*\n• Submodule: `{0}`\n• Dockerfile: `{1}`\n\n_This may have caused the build failure._\n\n<@{2}> <@{3}> Please update api/Dockerfile to use commit {0}', steps.version-check.outputs.submodule_version, steps.version-check.outputs.dockerfile_version, secrets.SLACK_DEV1_ID, secrets.SLACK_DEV2_ID) || '*Failure Reason:* Check workflow logs for details' }}"
-                  }
-                }
-              ]
+              "text": "❌ Docker Build Failed - ${{ steps.build-vars.outputs.image_name }} (${{ steps.build-vars.outputs.short_sha }}) on ${{ github.ref_name }} by ${{ github.actor }} - <${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}|View Logs>"
             }
diff --git a/api/Dockerfile b/api/Dockerfile
index 301bd89..1674a56 100644
--- a/api/Dockerfile
+++ b/api/Dockerfile
@@ -18,12 +18,11 @@ RUN pip install --user --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt && \
     # Clean up pip cache after installation
     rm -rf /root/.cache/pip
 
-# Force reinstall of pipecat on every build (cache bust)
-
-ARG CACHEBUST=1
-RUN pip install --user 'git+https://github.com/dograh-hq/pipecat.git@278248a#egg=pipecat-ai[cartesia,deepgram,openai,elevenlabs,groq,google,azure,soundfile,silero,webrtc]' && \
-    # Clean up pip cache after pipecat installation
-    rm -rf /root/.cache/pip
+# Copy and install pipecat from local submodule
+COPY pipecat /tmp/pipecat
+RUN pip install --user --no-cache-dir '/tmp/pipecat[cartesia,deepgram,openai,elevenlabs,groq,google,azure,soundfile,silero,webrtc]' && \
+    # Clean up pip cache and temporary pipecat directory
+    rm -rf /root/.cache/pip /tmp/pipecat
 
     
 # Remove unnecessary Python cache files from installed packages
diff --git a/scripts/check_pipecat_sync.sh b/scripts/check_pipecat_sync.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 0a558cd..0000000
--- a/scripts/check_pipecat_sync.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,90 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-#
-# check_pipecat_sync.sh
-#
-# Verifies that the pipecat submodule commit SHA matches the one in Dockerfile.
-# Used by CI/CD to ensure versions are synchronized before merging.
-# Exit code 0 = versions match, 1 = mismatch or error
-#
-
-set -euo pipefail
-
-# Colors for output (work in both terminal and CI)
-RED='\033[0;31m'
-GREEN='\033[0;32m'
-YELLOW='\033[1;33m'
-BLUE='\033[0;34m'
-NC='\033[0m' # No Color
-
-# Get the directory where this script is located
-SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
-PROJECT_ROOT="$(cd "$SCRIPT_DIR/.." && pwd)"
-
-echo "🔍 Checking pipecat version synchronization..."
-
-# Check if pipecat submodule exists
-if [ ! -d "$PROJECT_ROOT/pipecat" ]; then
-    echo -e "${RED}❌ ERROR: pipecat submodule not found at $PROJECT_ROOT/pipecat${NC}"
-    echo "Please run: git submodule update --init --recursive"
-    exit 1
-fi
-
-# Get the commit from the submodule (use short form - 7 chars)
-cd "$PROJECT_ROOT/pipecat"
-SUBMODULE_COMMIT=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
-SUBMODULE_SHORT=$(git rev-parse --short=7 HEAD)
-
-echo "📦 Submodule commit: $SUBMODULE_SHORT"
-
-# Check if Dockerfile exists
-DOCKERFILE="$PROJECT_ROOT/api/Dockerfile"
-if [ ! -f "$DOCKERFILE" ]; then
-    echo -e "${RED}❌ ERROR: Dockerfile not found at $DOCKERFILE${NC}"
-    exit 1
-fi
-
-# Check if pipecat is installed in Dockerfile
-if ! grep -q 'pipecat\.git@' "$DOCKERFILE"; then
-    echo -e "${RED}❌ ERROR: No pipecat installation found in api/Dockerfile${NC}"
-    echo "Expected to find a line like: RUN pip install 'git+https://github.com/dograh-hq/pipecat.git@<commit>'"
-    exit 1
-fi
-
-# Get the commit from the Dockerfile (extract whatever length is there)
-DOCKERFILE_COMMIT=$(grep -oE 'pipecat\.git@[a-f0-9]+' "$DOCKERFILE" | cut -d'@' -f2)
-# Normalize to 7 chars for comparison
-DOCKERFILE_SHORT=$(echo "$DOCKERFILE_COMMIT" | cut -c1-7)
-
-echo "🐳 Dockerfile commit: $DOCKERFILE_SHORT"
-
-# Compare the short commits (7 chars)
-if [ "$SUBMODULE_SHORT" != "$DOCKERFILE_SHORT" ]; then
-    echo ""
-    echo -e "${RED}❌ ERROR: Version mismatch detected!${NC}"
-    echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
-    echo -e "${YELLOW}Submodule:${NC}  $SUBMODULE_SHORT"
-    echo -e "${YELLOW}Dockerfile:${NC} $DOCKERFILE_SHORT"
-    echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
-    echo ""
-    echo -e "${BLUE}👉 TO FIX: Update the pipecat commit in api/Dockerfile to match the submodule${NC}"
-    echo ""
-    echo "Update api/Dockerfile line with pipecat installation to use commit: $SUBMODULE_SHORT"
-    echo "Then commit and push the updated api/Dockerfile"
-    echo ""
-    
-    # For GitHub Actions, output in annotation format for PR checks
-    if [ "${GITHUB_ACTIONS:-false}" == "true" ]; then
-        echo "::error file=api/Dockerfile,title=Pipecat Version Mismatch::Dockerfile has pipecat@$DOCKERFILE_SHORT but submodule is at $SUBMODULE_SHORT. Please update api/Dockerfile to use commit $SUBMODULE_SHORT"
-    fi
-    
-    exit 1
-fi
-
-# Success!
-echo ""
-echo -e "${GREEN}✅ SUCCESS: Pipecat versions are synchronized!${NC}"
-echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
-echo -e "${GREEN}Both using commit: $SUBMODULE_SHORT${NC}"
-echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
-
-exit 0
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ui/Dockerfile b/ui/Dockerfile
index efa3c3c..6964512 100644
--- a/ui/Dockerfile
+++ b/ui/Dockerfile
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ FROM node:20-alpine AS deps
 WORKDIR /app
 
 # Copy package files
-COPY package*.json ./
+COPY ui/package*.json ./
 # Install all dependencies (including dev dependencies for building)
 RUN npm ci --cache /tmp/empty-cache && \
     npm cache clean --force
@@ -17,15 +17,15 @@ WORKDIR /app
 COPY --from=deps /app/node_modules ./node_modules
 
 # Copy all files needed for build
-COPY package*.json ./
-COPY tsconfig.json ./
-COPY next.config.ts ./
-COPY components.json ./
-COPY sentry.edge.config.ts ./
-COPY sentry.server.config.ts ./
-COPY postcss.config.mjs ./
-COPY public ./public
-COPY src ./src
+COPY ui/package*.json ./
+COPY ui/tsconfig.json ./
+COPY ui/next.config.ts ./
+COPY ui/components.json ./
+COPY ui/sentry.edge.config.ts ./
+COPY ui/sentry.server.config.ts ./
+COPY ui/postcss.config.mjs ./
+COPY ui/public ./public
+COPY ui/src ./src
 
 # Set build-time environment variables (needed for Next.js build)
 ENV NEXT_PUBLIC_NODE_ENV="oss"