diff --git a/ai/hermes/Dockerfile b/ai/hermes/Dockerfile
index 1b775e7..c3a76fa 100644
--- a/ai/hermes/Dockerfile
+++ b/ai/hermes/Dockerfile
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ ENV CHROME_EXECUTABLE=/opt/hermes/.playwright/chromium/chrome-linux/chrome
 
 # Ensure tools directory and toolsets.py are writable by the hermes runtime user
 # so custom tools can be injected from the persistent volume at startup.
+USER root
 RUN chown -R hermes:hermes /opt/hermes/tools /opt/hermes/toolsets.py
 
 VOLUME [ "/opt/data" ]
\ No newline at end of file