diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/dev-deploy.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/dev-deploy.yaml
index 13c4a92..d24f9bf 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/dev-deploy.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/dev-deploy.yaml
@@ -100,9 +100,10 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Bring up the stack
         working-directory: tools/dev-deploy
-        env:
-          GALAXY_DEV_GAME_STATE_DIR: ${{ env.HOME }}/.galaxy-dev/game-state
         run: |
+          # Resolve in the shell, not in YAML expressions — `env.HOME`
+          # is empty at the workflow-evaluation stage.
+          export GALAXY_DEV_GAME_STATE_DIR="$HOME/.galaxy-dev/game-state"
           mkdir -p "$GALAXY_DEV_GAME_STATE_DIR"
           docker compose up -d --wait --remove-orphans
 
diff --git a/tools/dev-deploy/docker-compose.yml b/tools/dev-deploy/docker-compose.yml
index 5a449df..a6e4e67 100644
--- a/tools/dev-deploy/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/tools/dev-deploy/docker-compose.yml
@@ -125,7 +125,11 @@ services:
         target: ${GALAXY_DEV_GAME_STATE_DIR}
         bind:
           create_host_path: true
-      - ../../pkg/geoip/test-data/test-data/GeoIP2-Country-Test.mmdb:/var/lib/galaxy/geoip.mmdb:ro
+      # The GeoIP database is baked into the backend image (see
+      # tools/local-dev/backend.Dockerfile); a bind-mount is not used
+      # here because the source path resolves inside the runner
+      # workspace volume and the host Docker daemon cannot see it,
+      # which produced an "is a directory" error in CI.
     networks:
       - galaxy-internal
     healthcheck:
diff --git a/tools/local-dev/backend.Dockerfile b/tools/local-dev/backend.Dockerfile
index 1cd01c3..01e5898 100644
--- a/tools/local-dev/backend.Dockerfile
+++ b/tools/local-dev/backend.Dockerfile
@@ -24,6 +24,16 @@ COPY pkg/transcoder/ ./pkg/transcoder/
 COPY pkg/util/       ./pkg/util/
 COPY backend/        ./backend/
 
+# Bake the GeoIP test database into the build context so downstream
+# stages can copy it into the runtime image. The path is the
+# `MaxMind-DB` git submodule under `pkg/geoip/test-data/`; the file is
+# the smallest country DB MaxMind publishes and is what every other
+# dev-stack uses. Baking it lets dev-deploy skip the bind-mount that
+# fails on runner-workspace volumes the host Docker daemon cannot see.
+RUN mkdir -p /out/var/lib/galaxy
+COPY pkg/geoip/test-data/test-data/GeoIP2-Country-Test.mmdb \
+     /out/var/lib/galaxy/geoip.mmdb
+
 RUN <<'EOF' cat > go.work
 go 1.26.2
 
@@ -67,5 +77,6 @@ EXPOSE 8080
 EXPOSE 8081
 
 COPY --from=builder /out/backend /usr/local/bin/backend
+COPY --from=builder /out/var/lib/galaxy/geoip.mmdb /var/lib/galaxy/geoip.mmdb
 
 ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/bin/backend"]