diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9bd605
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+.venv
+__pycache__
+*.pyc
+.git
+.github
+.pytest_cache
+*.egg-info
+dbt/target
+dbt/logs
+dagster_home/storage
+dagster_home/logs
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 9e62300..804395b 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 .PHONY: help install sync build up down restart logs ps \
-       build-code reload-code \
+       build-code reload-code reload-usercode \
        dbt-parse dbt-run dbt-test dbt-build dbt-seed dbt-clean dbt-deps dbt-docs \
        dagster-dev \
        lint lint-fix lint-python lint-sql lint-format \
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ COMPOSE  := docker compose
 DBT_DIR  := dbt
 DBT      := uv run dbt
 # Container(s) that carry user code
-CODE_SERVICES := dagster-webserver dagster-daemon
+CODE_SERVICES := dagster-usercode dagster-webserver dagster-daemon
 
 ## —— Help ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
 help: ## Show this help
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ reload-code: ## Rebuild and restart the user-code containers (no downtime for po
 	$(COMPOSE) build $(CODE_SERVICES)
 	$(COMPOSE) up -d --no-deps $(CODE_SERVICES)
 
+reload-usercode: ## Rebuild and restart only the gRPC usercode server
+	$(COMPOSE) build dagster-usercode
+	$(COMPOSE) up -d --no-deps --force-recreate dagster-usercode
+
 ## —— dbt (local, via uv) —————————————————————————————————————
 dbt-parse: ## Parse the dbt project and generate manifest.json
 	$(DBT) parse --project-dir $(DBT_DIR) --profiles-dir $(DBT_DIR)
diff --git a/dagster_home/workspace.yaml b/dagster_home/workspace.yaml
index f5ea6fc..4326b16 100644
--- a/dagster_home/workspace.yaml
+++ b/dagster_home/workspace.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 load_from:
-  - python_package:
-      package_name: data_platform
-      attribute: defs
+  - grpc_server:
+      host: dagster-usercode
+      port: 4000
+      location_name: data_platform
diff --git a/docker-compose.yaml b/docker-compose.yaml
index 799cad1..e00c881 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yaml
+++ b/docker-compose.yaml
@@ -8,15 +8,12 @@ x-dagster: &dagster-common
   env_file: .env
   environment:
     DAGSTER_HOME: /app/dagster_home
-  volumes:
-    - dbt-target:/app/dbt/target
   depends_on:
     postgres:
       condition: service_healthy
   restart: unless-stopped
 
 services:
-
   # Metadata storage and dbt target
   postgres:
     image: postgres:16
@@ -37,19 +34,37 @@ services:
       timeout: 5s
       retries: 5
 
+  # User code gRPC server
+  dagster-usercode:
+    <<: *dagster-common
+    container_name: dagster-usercode
+    command: ["dagster", "api", "grpc", "-h", "0.0.0.0", "-p", "4000", "-m", "data_platform"]
+    volumes:
+      - dbt-target:/app/dbt/target
+    expose:
+      - "4000"
+
   # Web UI
   dagster-webserver:
     <<: *dagster-common
     container_name: dagster-webserver
+    entrypoint: []
     command: ["dagster-webserver", "-h", "0.0.0.0", "-p", "3000"]
     ports:
       - "3000:3000"
+    depends_on:
+      dagster-usercode:
+        condition: service_started
 
   # Schedules, sensors and run queuing
   dagster-daemon:
     <<: *dagster-common
     container_name: dagster-daemon
+    entrypoint: []
     command: ["dagster-daemon", "run"]
+    depends_on:
+      dagster-usercode:
+        condition: service_started
 
 volumes:
   postgres-data:
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index ec51158..9974305 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ dependencies = [
     "dagster-dbt",
     "dbt-core",
     "dbt-postgres",
-    "pyfunda",
 ]
 
 [build-system]
@@ -23,39 +22,8 @@ packages = ["data_platform"]
 module_name = "data_platform"
 attribute = "defs"
 
-[dependency-groups]
-dev = [
+[tool.uv]
+dev-dependencies = [
     "pytest",
     "dagster-webserver",
-    "pre-commit",
-    "ruff",
-    "sqlfluff",
-    "sqlfluff-templater-dbt",
 ]
-
-[tool.ruff]
-target-version = "py311"
-line-length = 100
-
-[tool.ruff.lint]
-select = [
-    "E",   # pycodestyle errors
-    "W",   # pycodestyle warnings
-    "F",   # pyflakes
-    "I",   # isort
-    "UP",  # pyupgrade
-    "B",   # flake8-bugbear
-    "SIM", # flake8-simplify
-    "C4",  # flake8-comprehensions
-]
-ignore = [
-    "E501",  # line too long – handled by formatter
-    "B008",  # function call in default argument (Dagster configs use this)
-]
-
-[tool.ruff.lint.isort]
-known-first-party = ["data_platform"]
-
-[tool.pytest.ini_options]
-testpaths = ["tests"]
-addopts = "-v"