Docker image ghcr.io/morphik-org/morphik-core:latest exits on startup with ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'utils' (missing /app/utils and utils.env_loader)

[darconada]

Docker image ghcr.io/morphik-org/morphik-core:latest exits on startup with ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'utils'

Summary

When deploying Morphik via the official Docker installer (install_docker.sh) using the prebuilt image, both morphik (API) and worker containers exit immediately with:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'utils'

The traceback originates from /app/core/config.py importing:

from utils.env_loader import load_local_env

Inspecting the published image shows /app/utils is missing and env_loader.py cannot be found anywhere under /app, so the import is impossible.

Environment

• Host OS: Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (noble)
• Docker: 29.1.2
• Docker Compose: v5.0.0
• Install method: install_docker.sh (quick start / prebuilt image)
• GPU: NVIDIA L40S (Driver 580.82.07) (likely unrelated; repro happens before the API is up)

Optional: paste the image digest

docker image inspect ghcr.io/morphik-org/morphik-core:latest --format '{{index .RepoDigests 0}}'

Steps to reproduce

1. On a clean host with Docker + Docker Compose:

   mkdir -p /opt/morphik-core && cd /opt/morphik-core
   curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/morphik-org/morphik-core/main/install_docker.sh | bash

2. Complete installer prompts (in my case: embeddings via Ollama; failure happens before the API comes up).

3. Start the stack:

   docker compose -f docker-compose.run.yml --profile ui --profile ollama up -d --remove-orphans

4. Observe container status:

   docker compose -f docker-compose.run.yml ps -a

   morphik and worker exit with code 1.

Expected behavior

• morphik and worker stay running.

• API responds:

  curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/health

Actual behavior

morphik logs

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/app/start_server.py", line 15, in <module>
    from core.config import get_settings
  File "/app/core/config.py", line 9, in <module>
    from utils.env_loader import load_local_env
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'utils'

worker logs

Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
  File "/app/core/config.py", line 9, in <module>
    from utils.env_loader import load_local_env
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'utils'

Investigation (inside the published image)

/app/utils is missing

docker run --rm --entrypoint /bin/sh ghcr.io/morphik-org/morphik-core:latest -lc \
'ls -la /app/utils || echo "MISSING /app/utils"'

env_loader.py cannot be found anywhere

docker run --rm --entrypoint /bin/sh ghcr.io/morphik-org/morphik-core:latest -lc \
'find /app -maxdepth 6 -name "env_loader.py" -print'

Additionally, /app/core/utils exists, suggesting a possible import-path mismatch or packaging omission.

Impact

This blocks the Docker “quick start” deployment: the API never comes up and Morphik is unusable unless patched locally.

Workaround (used to unblock)

Bind-mount a minimal utils/env_loader.py into the containers at /app/utils so the import succeeds.

Important: Morphik calls load_local_env(..., override=True), so the function must accept an override kwarg.

Workaround requirements:

• Provide /app/utils/env_loader.py
• Implement load_local_env(path=None, override: bool = False, **kwargs)

Suspected root cause

The published latest image appears to be built without the top-level Python package utils (or at least without utils/env_loader.py), while runtime imports in /app/core/config.py still depend on it.

Suggested fix

• Ensure the published Docker image contains the expected module path for utils.env_loader, or update imports consistently to the correct location (e.g., core.utils...) if the package was moved/refactored.

• Add a build-time sanity check in the image pipeline:

  python -c "from core.config import get_settings"

Attachments

morphik-git-bug.pdf

[darconada]

Reproducibility details (tested image digest)

RepoDigest (latest at test time):

ghcr.io/morphik-org/morphik-core@sha256:3f2d8b1ec14ae017ff155f6a9707612bc2269f2b94ce6155e8b8792deaf9cb8f

Image metadata (docker image inspect):

Id: sha256:3f2d8b1ec14ae017ff155f6a9707612bc2269f2b94ce6155e8b8792deaf9cb8f
Created: 2025-12-11T03:54:21.954725603Z

/app directory listing (note: no /app/utils present):

total 992
drwxr-xr-x  1 root root   4096 Dec 11 03:54 .
drwxr-xr-x  1 root root   4096 Dec 15 11:25 ..
drwxr-xr-x  6 root root   4096 Dec 11 03:52 .venv
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   4377 Dec 11 03:49 LICENSE
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   7485 Dec 11 03:49 README.md
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root   4096 Dec 11 03:49 core
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   1063 Dec 11 03:54 docker-entrypoint.sh
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root   4096 Dec 11 03:49 ee
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 Dec 11 03:49 fde
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 Dec 11 03:54 logs
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   6333 Dec 11 03:49 morphik.toml.default
drwxr-xr-x  4 root root   4096 Dec 11 03:49 morphik_rust
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   2418 Dec 11 03:49 pyproject.toml
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  12380 Dec 11 03:49 start_server.py
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 Dec 11 03:54 storage
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 927410 Dec 11 03:49 uv.lock

Commands used:

docker image inspect ghcr.io/morphik-org/morphik-core:latest --format '{{index .RepoDigests 0}}'
docker image inspect ghcr.io/morphik-org/morphik-core:latest --format $'Id: {{.Id}}\nCreated: {{.Created}}'
docker run --rm --entrypoint /bin/sh ghcr.io/morphik-org/morphik-core:latest -lc 'ls -la /app | head -n 200'

[Adityav369]

Thanks! Just added a fix for this :)