diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index ffc07bea..843b5d37 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -12,6 +12,11 @@ RUN apt-get update && DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt -y install curl git rsy
     apt-get clean  &&\
     rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
+# entrypoint.sh starts an ssh-agent on this fixed, container-local socket; let
+# `docker exec ... bash` sessions attach to the same agent without writing to the
+# bind-mounted home. No-op when the socket is absent.
+RUN printf '\n[ -S /tmp/wheel-ssh-agent.sock ] && export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/wheel-ssh-agent.sock\n' >> /etc/bash.bashrc
+
 FROM base AS run_base
 WORKDIR /usr/src/
 COPY package.json package.json
diff --git a/entrypoint.sh b/entrypoint.sh
index d5cdc6cc..593c77da 100755
--- a/entrypoint.sh
+++ b/entrypoint.sh
@@ -27,9 +27,15 @@ if [ "xYES" == "x${WHEEL_ANONYMOUS_LOGIN}" ]; then
   export WHEEL_ENABLE_AUTH=YES
 fi
 
-SSH_ENV_FILE=/root/ssh_env
-ssh-agent -s > ${SSH_ENV_FILE}
-source ${SSH_ENV_FILE}
-echo "source ${SSH_ENV_FILE}" >> /root/.bashrc
+# start an ssh-agent for the WHEEL server. WHEEL spawns many `ssh` subprocesses
+# (ssh-client-wrapper) that inherit SSH_AUTH_SOCK from this process, so with
+# AddKeysToAgent in the user's ssh config the key passphrase is entered once (via
+# the browser prompt) and reused, and agent forwarding works for ProxyJump chains.
+# The socket lives on a container-local path (/tmp is not bind-mounted) so nothing
+# is written into a bind-mounted home - a shared /etc/bash.bashrc line (see
+# Dockerfile) lets `docker exec ... bash` pick up the same agent.
+export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/wheel-ssh-agent.sock
+rm -f "${SSH_AUTH_SOCK}"
+ssh-agent -a "${SSH_AUTH_SOCK}" > /dev/null
 
-npm start
+exec npm start
diff --git a/server/app/db/version.json b/server/app/db/version.json
index 72d48229..2df01726 100644
--- a/server/app/db/version.json
+++ b/server/app/db/version.json
@@ -1 +1 @@
-{"version": "2026-0910-132440-beta" }
\ No newline at end of file
+{"version": "2026-0910-204642-beta" }
\ No newline at end of file