diff --git a/.github/workflows/test-e2e-lifecycle.yml b/.github/workflows/test-e2e-lifecycle.yml
index 3c6b55d168..eba490de30 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test-e2e-lifecycle.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test-e2e-lifecycle.yml
@@ -8,6 +8,11 @@ on:
       - 'cmd/thv-operator/**'
       - 'pkg/**'
       - 'test/e2e/thv-operator/**'
+      # This job is the only one that runs the Ginkgo suite under
+      # test/e2e/thv-operator, and that suite sources every backend container
+      # image from test/e2e/images. A change there alters what these tests
+      # actually deploy, so it has to trigger them.
+      - 'test/e2e/images/**'
       - '.github/workflows/test-e2e-lifecycle.yml'
 
 permissions:
diff --git a/examples/operator/virtual-mcps/vmcp_optimizer_quickstart.yaml b/examples/operator/virtual-mcps/vmcp_optimizer_quickstart.yaml
index 35694a384c..fd3d6bfd3c 100644
--- a/examples/operator/virtual-mcps/vmcp_optimizer_quickstart.yaml
+++ b/examples/operator/virtual-mcps/vmcp_optimizer_quickstart.yaml
@@ -288,6 +288,9 @@ spec:
 
 ---
 # Step 2j: MCPServer backend - ida-pro-mcp (IDA Pro reverse engineering)
+# The 1.4.0 tag is mutable and its latest rebuild resolves mcp Python SDK 2.0.0,
+# which dropped mcp.server.fastmcp and makes the container crashloop. Pinned to
+# the last build that resolved mcp 1.x. See test/e2e/images/images.go.
 apiVersion: toolhive.stacklok.dev/v1beta1
 kind: MCPServer
 metadata:
@@ -296,7 +299,7 @@ metadata:
 spec:
   groupRef:
     name: optimizer-services
-  image: ghcr.io/stacklok/dockyard/uvx/ida-pro-mcp:1.4.0
+  image: ghcr.io/stacklok/dockyard/uvx/ida-pro-mcp:1.4.0@sha256:5a596d965fe05052d615a41152213f93ebc72bf46b07304718de948833d73c70
   transport: stdio
   proxyPort: 8080
   resources:
diff --git a/test/e2e/images/images.go b/test/e2e/images/images.go
index 0dd341ccb9..d1dd46e2ec 100644
--- a/test/e2e/images/images.go
+++ b/test/e2e/images/images.go
@@ -92,9 +92,24 @@ const (
 
 	idaProMCPServerImageURL = "ghcr.io/stacklok/dockyard/uvx/ida-pro-mcp"
 	idaProMCPServerImageTag = "1.4.0"
+	// idaProMCPServerImageDigest pins the 2026-07-27 build of tag 1.4.0.
+	//
+	// The tag is mutable: dockyard periodically rebuilds it and resolves Python
+	// dependencies fresh each time. ida-pro-mcp 1.4.0 declares an unbounded
+	// "mcp>=1.16.0" and imports mcp.server.fastmcp, which was removed in the
+	// mcp Python SDK 2.0.0 (released 2026-07-28). The 2026-07-31 rebuild picked
+	// up mcp 2.0.0, so the container now crashloops on startup with
+	// "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'mcp.server.fastmcp'".
+	//
+	// 1.4.0 is the newest ida-pro-mcp release on PyPI, so there is nothing to
+	// bump to. Pin the last build that resolved a 1.x mcp (1.28.1) until
+	// upstream caps the constraint or adopts the 2.x API. Every other backend
+	// in the optimizer test is unaffected -- pagerduty-mcp, the only other
+	// dockyard uvx image, caps "mcp[cli]~=1.8".
+	idaProMCPServerImageDigest = "sha256:5a596d965fe05052d615a41152213f93ebc72bf46b07304718de948833d73c70"
 	// IDAProMCPServerImage is used for testing multi-backend optimizer scenarios.
 	// Provides ~47 IDA Pro reverse engineering tools (decompile, disassemble, rename, etc.).
-	IDAProMCPServerImage = idaProMCPServerImageURL + ":" + idaProMCPServerImageTag
+	IDAProMCPServerImage = idaProMCPServerImageURL + ":" + idaProMCPServerImageTag + "@" + idaProMCPServerImageDigest
 
 	pagerdutyMCPServerImageURL = "ghcr.io/stacklok/dockyard/uvx/pagerduty-mcp"
 	pagerdutyMCPServerImageTag = "0.12.0"