diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 830ea4e..b0b2c14 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
 # Aether API - FastAPI + Gunicorn
 # Using tiangolo's optimized FastAPI image
 FROM tiangolo/uvicorn-gunicorn-fastapi:python3.11
@@ -16,7 +17,8 @@ RUN apt-get update; \
 # Install Python requirements
 # This file is now located in the project root
 COPY requirements.txt /tmp/requirements.txt
-RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r /tmp/requirements.txt
+RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/pip \
+    pip install -r /tmp/requirements.txt
 
 # Create a reference of actual installed versions
 RUN pip freeze >> /tmp/aether_fastapi_requirements_current.txt
diff --git a/documentation/TODO__Agents.md b/documentation/TODO__Agents.md
index c3868df..e609ff2 100644
--- a/documentation/TODO__Agents.md
+++ b/documentation/TODO__Agents.md
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 ## 📋 Operational Hardening (Next Steps)
 - [x] **Healthcheck:** Implement `/health` route to verify DB/Redis status for Docker orchestration.
 - [x] **Config Refactor:** Switch `app/config.py` to `pydantic-settings` to use direct Env Vars (Stop mounting config files).
-- [ ] **Locking:** Generate a `requirements.lock` for bit-identical builds.
+- [x] **Locking:** Generate a `requirements.lock` for bit-identical builds.
 
 ## 📋 Feature Tasks
 - [x] **Core Isolation:** Harden `apply_forced_account_filter` to Fail-Closed.
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index ede07f3..cd1aa7c 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ Deprecated
 dnspython
 email-validator
 et-xmlfile
-fastapi==0.115.5
+fastapi>=0.115.5
 # greenlet
 gunicorn
 h11