diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 1b7c8d9..92dc257 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -42,6 +42,12 @@ RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/go/pkg/mod \
   --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/go-build \
   CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux go build -installsuffix cgo -o main ./cmd/server
 
+# Materialize the Go module cache into an image layer so the test-runner
+# stage can restore it. GOMODCACHE is /go/pkg/mod; cache mounts elsewhere are
+# ignored by the go tool, and without this copy `go test` in the tests
+# container re-downloads every dependency on each invocation.
+RUN cp -r /go/pkg/mod /app/go-module-cache
+
 # Test runner stage - includes Go runtime and test dependencies
 # This stage is ONLY used for running tests, never deployed to production
 FROM golang:1.26-alpine AS test-runner
@@ -53,6 +59,9 @@ WORKDIR /app
 # Copy everything from builder (includes compiled binary, source code, and dependencies)
 COPY --from=builder /app ./
 
+# Restore the materialized Go module cache so `go test` works offline.
+RUN mkdir -p /go/pkg/mod && cp -r /app/go-module-cache/. /go/pkg/mod/ && rm -rf /app/go-module-cache
+
 # Install kepubify for conversion tests
 RUN wget -O /usr/bin/kepubify https://github.com/pgaskin/kepubify/releases/latest/download/kepubify-linux-64bit \
   && chmod +x /usr/bin/kepubify