diff --git a/Dockerfile.activator b/Dockerfile.activator
index 24b50a66..049f5591 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.activator
+++ b/Dockerfile.activator
@@ -3,13 +3,8 @@ FROM ghcr.io/lsst-dm/prompt-proto-base:${BASE_TAG}
 ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED True
 ENV APP_HOME /app
 ENV PROMPT_PROTOTYPE_DIR $APP_HOME
-ARG RUBIN_INSTRUMENT
 ARG PUBSUB_VERIFICATION_TOKEN
 ARG PORT
-ARG CALIB_REPO
-ARG IMAGE_BUCKET
-ARG IMAGE_TIMEOUT
-ARG BUCKET_TOPIC
 WORKDIR $APP_HOME
 COPY python/activator activator/
 COPY pipelines pipelines/
diff --git a/doc/playbook.rst b/doc/playbook.rst
index daf0d196..a2e199f3 100644
--- a/doc/playbook.rst
+++ b/doc/playbook.rst
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ To create or edit the Cloud Run service in the Google Cloud Console:
 
 * There are also five optional parameters:
 
-  * IMAGE_TIMEOUT: timeout in seconds to wait for raw image, default 50 sec.
+  * IMAGE_TIMEOUT: timeout in seconds to wait after expected script completion for raw image arrival, default 20 sec.
   * LOCAL_REPOS: absolute path (in the container) where local repos are created, default ``/tmp``.
   * USER_APDB: database user for the APDB, default "postgres"
   * USER_REGISTRY: database user for the registry database, default "postgres"
@@ -228,7 +228,7 @@ It includes the following required environment variables:
 
 The following environment variables are optional:
 
-* IMAGE_TIMEOUT: timeout in seconds to wait for raw image, default 50 sec.
+* IMAGE_TIMEOUT: timeout in seconds to wait after expected script completion for raw image arrival, default 20 sec.
 * LOCAL_REPOS: absolute path (in the container) where local repos are created, default ``/tmp``.
 * USER_APDB: database user for the APDB, default "postgres"
 * USER_REGISTRY: database user for the registry database, default "postgres"
@@ -310,15 +310,7 @@ tester
 ``python/tester/upload.py`` and ``python/tester/upload_hsc_rc2.py`` are scripts that simulate the CCS image writer.
 It can be run from ``rubin-devl``, but requires the user to install the ``confluent_kafka`` package in their environment.
 
-You must have a profile set up for the ``rubin-pp`` bucket (see `Buckets`_, above), and must set the ``KAFKA_CLUSTER`` environment variable.
-Run:
-
-.. code-block:: sh
-
-   kubectl get service -n kafka prompt-processing-kafka-external-bootstrap
-
-and look up the ``EXTERNAL-IP``; set ``KAFKA_CLUSTER=<ip>:9094``.
-The IP address is fixed, so you should only need to look it up once.
+You must have a profile set up for the ``rubin-pp`` bucket (see `Buckets`_, above).
 
 Install the prototype code, and set it up before use:
 
diff --git a/python/tester/upload.py b/python/tester/upload.py
index f47d0780..64782f74 100644
--- a/python/tester/upload.py
+++ b/python/tester/upload.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 import dataclasses
 import itertools
 import logging
-import os
 import random
 import re
 import sys
@@ -31,9 +30,6 @@ class Instrument:
 EXPOSURE_INTERVAL = 18
 SLEW_INTERVAL = 2
 
-# Kafka server
-kafka_cluster = os.environ["KAFKA_CLUSTER"]
-
 
 logging.basicConfig(
     format="{levelname} {asctime} {name} - {message}",
diff --git a/python/tester/upload_hsc_rc2.py b/python/tester/upload_hsc_rc2.py
index 47507a1b..29e2b865 100644
--- a/python/tester/upload_hsc_rc2.py
+++ b/python/tester/upload_hsc_rc2.py
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@
 # along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
 import logging
-import os
 import random
 import sys
 import tempfile
@@ -38,8 +37,6 @@
 EXPOSURE_INTERVAL = 18
 SLEW_INTERVAL = 2
 
-# Kafka server
-kafka_cluster = os.environ["KAFKA_CLUSTER"]
 
 logging.basicConfig(
     format="{levelname} {asctime} {name} - {message}",