diff --git a/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.hermes-switchyard-brokers b/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.hermes-switchyard-brokers
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1e848532f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.hermes-switchyard-brokers
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# dockerfiles/Dockerfile.hermes-switchyard-brokers
+FROM python:3.13-slim@sha256:9662417aace5ae7b8e2609cce472b72a8958e134ba372808abe9cc1a0c0125e6
+
+ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
+    PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
+
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir httpx==0.28.1 \
+    && groupadd --gid 10000 switchyard \
+    && useradd --uid 10000 --gid 10000 --home-dir /nonexistent --no-create-home switchyard
+
+COPY --chown=10000:10000 services/hermes/scripts/claude_oauth_broker.py /opt/brokers/claude_oauth_broker.py
+COPY --chown=10000:10000 services/hermes/scripts/worker_route_broker.py /opt/brokers/worker_route_broker.py
+COPY --chown=10000:10000 services/hermes/scripts/routing_catalog.py /opt/brokers/routing_catalog.py
+
+RUN python -m py_compile /opt/brokers/*.py
+
+USER 10000:10000
+WORKDIR /opt/brokers
diff --git a/services/hermes/switchyard-deployment.yaml b/services/hermes/switchyard-deployment.yaml
index a0fd975ba..d2462b865 100644
--- a/services/hermes/switchyard-deployment.yaml
+++ b/services/hermes/switchyard-deployment.yaml
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ spec:
       labels:
         app: hermes-switchyard
       annotations:
-        ai.bstein.dev/config-rev: "20260811-switchyard-authority-v12"
+        ai.bstein.dev/config-rev: "20260812-switchyard-authority-v13"
         prometheus.io/scrape: "true"
         prometheus.io/port: "9005"
         prometheus.io/path: /metrics
@@ -127,10 +127,10 @@ spec:
             - name: tmp
               mountPath: /tmp
         - name: claude-oauth-broker
-          image: registry.bstein.dev/bstein/hermes-agent@sha256:9b4c00a25fd08f0df3bcb800d755bd48576fb65af5ab0df40058fbb78a147e43
+          image: registry.bstein.dev/bstein/hermes-switchyard-brokers@sha256:ee7e95e060ef8083da505162d7e9030daba15fdd828cc047bbcbe6aa409d2083
           imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
           command:
-            - /opt/hermes/.venv/bin/python
+            - python
             - /opt/coordinator/claude_oauth_broker.py
           env:
             - name: HERMES_CLAUDE_OAUTH_TOKEN_FILE
@@ -184,10 +184,10 @@ spec:
               mountPath: /routing-catalog
               readOnly: true
         - name: worker-route-broker
-          image: registry.bstein.dev/bstein/hermes-agent@sha256:9b4c00a25fd08f0df3bcb800d755bd48576fb65af5ab0df40058fbb78a147e43
+          image: registry.bstein.dev/bstein/hermes-switchyard-brokers@sha256:ee7e95e060ef8083da505162d7e9030daba15fdd828cc047bbcbe6aa409d2083
           imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
           command:
-            - /opt/hermes/.venv/bin/python
+            - python
             - /opt/coordinator/worker_route_broker.py
           ports:
             - name: worker-route
diff --git a/testing/tests/test_hermes_chat_quality.py b/testing/tests/test_hermes_chat_quality.py
index f7f3b08af..2c3f44ff7 100644
--- a/testing/tests/test_hermes_chat_quality.py
+++ b/testing/tests/test_hermes_chat_quality.py
@@ -639,6 +639,27 @@ def test_claude_broker_exposes_capacity_exhaustion_as_retryable(monkeypatch):
     assert module._normalized_upstream_status(403, exhausted) == 403
 
 
+def test_switchyard_brokers_use_the_small_dedicated_image():
+    """Control-plane brokers must not pull the full multi-gigabyte agent image."""
+    dockerfile = (ROOT / "dockerfiles" / "Dockerfile.hermes-switchyard-brokers").read_text()
+    assert "httpx==0.28.1" in dockerfile
+    assert "claude_oauth_broker.py" in dockerfile
+    assert "worker_route_broker.py" in dockerfile
+    assert "routing_catalog.py" in dockerfile
+
+    deployment = _documents(HERMES / "switchyard-deployment.yaml")[0]
+    containers = {
+        container["name"]: container
+        for container in deployment["spec"]["template"]["spec"]["containers"]
+    }
+    expected = (
+        "registry.bstein.dev/bstein/hermes-switchyard-brokers@"
+        "sha256:ee7e95e060ef8083da505162d7e9030daba15fdd828cc047bbcbe6aa409d2083"
+    )
+    assert containers["claude-oauth-broker"]["image"] == expected
+    assert containers["worker-route-broker"]["image"] == expected
+
+
 def test_image_broker_returns_bytes_and_removes_owner_cache(tmp_path: Path, monkeypatch):
     """The broker must not retain a family user's generated image."""
     broker_path = HERMES / "scripts" / "image_broker.py"