diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/ci-dev.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/ci-dev.yaml
index 446ed0d..3572c95 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/ci-dev.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/ci-dev.yaml
@@ -272,8 +272,9 @@ jobs:
           gcloud config set project neuron-785695
           gcloud auth configure-docker us-central1-docker.pkg.dev --quiet
 
-          # Pull existing ci-base:dev (system deps stay cached in the base layer)
-          docker pull "${CI_BASE}:dev" || docker pull "${CI_BASE}:latest"
+          # Pull existing ci-base:dev (or fall back to :latest on first run)
+          BASE_TAG="dev"
+          docker pull "${CI_BASE}:dev" || { docker pull "${CI_BASE}:latest" && BASE_TAG="latest"; }
 
           # Inline Dockerfile — only replaces the El SDK layer
           cat > /tmp/Dockerfile.ci-base-patch << 'EOF'
@@ -288,7 +289,7 @@ jobs:
           EOF
 
           docker build \
-            --build-arg BASE="${CI_BASE}:dev" \
+            --build-arg BASE="${CI_BASE}:${BASE_TAG}" \
             --build-arg BUILDKIT_INLINE_CACHE=1 \
             -f /tmp/Dockerfile.ci-base-patch \
             -t "${CI_BASE}:dev" \