diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 79d090d..746e58d 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -26,16 +26,28 @@ ARG PI_EXTENSIONS_REF=main
 # At runtime, NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX is reset to /home/developer/.pi/npm-global
 # (inherited from base ENV) so user-installed packages land on the named
 # volume and survive container recreate.
-RUN if [ "${PI_VERSION}" = "latest" ]; then \
+#
+# git clone is wrapped in a retry loop because gitea.jordbo.se occasionally
+# returns transient HTTP 500s on the first request after idle.
+RUN set -e && \
+    git_clone_retry() { \
+      url="$1"; ref="$2"; dest="$3"; \
+      for i in 1 2 3 4 5; do \
+        if git clone --depth 1 --branch "$ref" "$url" "$dest"; then return 0; fi; \
+        rm -rf "$dest"; \
+        echo "git clone $url failed (attempt $i/5), retrying in $((i*5))s..."; \
+        sleep $((i*5)); \
+      done; \
+      return 1; \
+    } && \
+    if [ "${PI_VERSION}" = "latest" ]; then \
       NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX=/usr npm install -g @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent ; \
     else \
       NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX=/usr npm install -g @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent@${PI_VERSION} ; \
     fi && \
     pi --version && \
-    git clone --depth 1 --branch "${PI_TOOLKIT_REF}" \
-      https://gitea.jordbo.se/joakimp/pi-toolkit.git /opt/pi-toolkit && \
-    git clone --depth 1 --branch "${PI_EXTENSIONS_REF}" \
-      https://gitea.jordbo.se/joakimp/pi-extensions.git /opt/pi-extensions && \
+    git_clone_retry https://gitea.jordbo.se/joakimp/pi-toolkit.git "${PI_TOOLKIT_REF}" /opt/pi-toolkit && \
+    git_clone_retry https://gitea.jordbo.se/joakimp/pi-extensions.git "${PI_EXTENSIONS_REF}" /opt/pi-extensions && \
     echo "pi-toolkit at $(cd /opt/pi-toolkit && git rev-parse --short HEAD)" && \
     echo "pi-extensions at $(cd /opt/pi-extensions && git rev-parse --short HEAD)"