diff --git a/docker/automodel/Dockerfile.nmp-automodel-tasks b/docker/automodel/Dockerfile.nmp-automodel-tasks
index 4e70b8a99c..33073e65c9 100644
--- a/docker/automodel/Dockerfile.nmp-automodel-tasks
+++ b/docker/automodel/Dockerfile.nmp-automodel-tasks
@@ -29,11 +29,15 @@ RUN mkdir -p /home/${USERNAME}/.cache && \
 
 # /app/pyproject.toml is pyproject.workspace.toml (see Dockerfile.platform-workspace).
 # --inexact: keep PyTorch / Automodel packages already in the base venv; add nmp-automodel + deps.
+# nmp-models is only needed for the model_spec task/parallelism helper here; install
+# it without resolving the full models-service deployment backend dependency graph.
 ENV UV_LINK_MODE=copy \
     UV_PROJECT_ENVIRONMENT=${VIRTUAL_ENV}
 
 RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/uv \
-    uv sync --package nmp-automodel --package nmp-models --no-dev --inexact
+    uv sync --package nmp-automodel --no-dev --inexact && \
+    uv pip install --python ${VIRTUAL_ENV}/bin/python --no-cache --no-deps --no-sources \
+    -e /app/services/core/models
 
 ENV PATH="${VIRTUAL_ENV}/bin:${PATH}"
 ENTRYPOINT ["/opt/venv/bin/python"]
diff --git a/docker/automodel/Dockerfile.platform-workspace b/docker/automodel/Dockerfile.platform-workspace
index 9d4854a15c..3aecd10a4d 100644
--- a/docker/automodel/Dockerfile.platform-workspace
+++ b/docker/automodel/Dockerfile.platform-workspace
@@ -15,10 +15,11 @@ COPY docker/automodel/no_override_requirements.txt docker/automodel/no_override_
 COPY docs docs
 COPY openapi openapi
 COPY packages/nmp_build_tools packages/nmp_build_tools
-COPY packages/models packages/models
 COPY packages/nmp_common packages/nmp_common
 COPY packages/nmp_customization_common packages/nmp_customization_common
 COPY packages/nemo_platform_plugin packages/nemo_platform_plugin
 COPY sdk/python/nemo-platform sdk/python/nemo-platform
 COPY services/automodel services/automodel
+# Copied for the tasks image only. It is installed outside the reduced uv
+# workspace to avoid pulling the full models-service deployment backend graph.
 COPY services/core/models services/core/models
diff --git a/docker/automodel/pyproject.workspace.toml b/docker/automodel/pyproject.workspace.toml
index f576d9da0b..6b50704dd0 100644
--- a/docker/automodel/pyproject.workspace.toml
+++ b/docker/automodel/pyproject.workspace.toml
@@ -14,21 +14,17 @@ constraint-dependencies = ["greenlet>=3.0.0,<3.5"]
 [tool.uv.workspace]
 members = [
   "packages/nmp_build_tools",
-  "packages/models",
   "sdk/python/nemo-platform",
   "packages/nemo_platform_plugin",
   "packages/nmp_common",
   "packages/nmp_customization_common",
   "services/automodel",
-  "services/core/models",
 ]
 
 [tool.uv.sources]
 nmp-build-tools = { workspace = true }
-models = { workspace = true }
 nemo-platform-sdk = { workspace = true }
 nemo-platform-plugin = { workspace = true }
 nmp-common = { workspace = true }
 nmp-customization-common = { workspace = true }
 nmp-automodel = { workspace = true }
-nmp-models = { workspace = true }