diff --git a/submatrix/Containerfile b/submatrix/Containerfile
index 91d8178c..ad73ebb6 100644
--- a/submatrix/Containerfile
+++ b/submatrix/Containerfile
@@ -1,25 +1,40 @@
-FROM alpine:3.20 as submatrix
+FROM alpine:3.20 as build
 
-RUN apk add \
-	synapse \
-	envsubst \
-	py3-curl \
-	tzdata \
-	;
+RUN apk update && \
+	apk add \
+		envsubst \
+	&& \
+	:
 
 COPY homeserver.yaml.template /etc/synapse/homeserver.yaml.template
 
-COPY homeserver.log.config /etc/synapse/homeserver.log.config
+ARG MATRIX_HOSTNAME
 
-COPY orbit_auth.py /usr/local/share/submatrix/
+RUN envsubst '$MATRIX_HOSTNAME' < /etc/synapse/homeserver.yaml.template > /etc/synapse/homeserver.yaml
 
-COPY start.sh /usr/local/share/submatrix/
+FROM alpine:3.20 as submatrix
 
-ARG MATRIX_HOSTNAME=localhost
+COPY --from=build /etc/synapse/homeserver.yaml /etc/synapse/homeserver.yaml
 
-RUN envsubst '$MATRIX_HOSTNAME' < /etc/synapse/homeserver.yaml.template > /etc/synapse/homeserver.yaml
+RUN apk update && \
+	apk add \
+		synapse \
+		py3-curl \
+		tzdata \
+	&& \
+	:
+
+COPY homeserver.log.config /etc/synapse/homeserver.log.config
+
+COPY orbit_auth.py /usr/local/share/submatrix/
+
+# forgive the __import__ garbage, you can't start a with block after a semicolon (i.e. import foo; with...)
+# this creates a file in the sytem site-packages folder (whose exact location depends on the python version
+# and can only be discovered by asking python) that points to our folder for the auth plugin so that our
+# folder is added to the python path and synapse will be able to import the module code located in there.
+RUN python3 -c 'with open(__import__("pathlib").Path(__import__("site").getsitepackages()[0]) / "custom-site-pkgs.pth", "w") as f: f.write("/usr/local/share/submatrix\n")'
 
 USER 100:100
 
-ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/share/submatrix/start.sh"]
+ENTRYPOINT ["synapse_homeserver", "-c", "/etc/synapse/homeserver.yaml"]
 
diff --git a/submatrix/start.sh b/submatrix/start.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 0d908cdf..00000000
--- a/submatrix/start.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/sh
-export PYTHONPATH="/usr/local/share/submatrix:${PYTHONPATH}"
-exec synapse_homeserver -c /etc/synapse/homeserver.yaml