diff --git a/.buildkite/.pipeline_gen_v2 b/.buildkite/.pipeline_gen_v2
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e69de29bb
diff --git a/.buildkite/image_build/image_build.sh b/.buildkite/image_build/image_build.sh
index 9483ff2f2..f0bbaab77 100755
--- a/.buildkite/image_build/image_build.sh
+++ b/.buildkite/image_build/image_build.sh
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ resolve_parent_commit() {
 print_bake_config() {
     echo "--- :page_facing_up: Resolved bake configuration"
     BAKE_CONFIG_FILE="bake-config-build-${BUILDKITE_BUILD_NUMBER:-local}.json"
-    docker buildx bake -f "${VLLM_BAKE_FILE}" -f "${CI_HCL_PATH}" --print "${TARGET}" | tee "${BAKE_CONFIG_FILE}" || true
+    docker buildx bake -f "${VLLM_BAKE_FILE_PATH}" -f "${CI_HCL_PATH}" --print "${TARGET}" | tee "${BAKE_CONFIG_FILE}" || true
     echo "Saved bake config to ${BAKE_CONFIG_FILE}"
     echo "--- :arrow_down: Uploading bake config to Buildkite"
     buildkite-agent artifact upload "${BAKE_CONFIG_FILE}"
@@ -170,9 +170,9 @@ IMAGE_TAG_LATEST=${8:-} # only used for main branch, optional
 
 # build config
 TARGET="test-ci"
-CI_HCL_URL="${CI_HCL_URL:-https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vllm-project/ci-infra/main/docker/ci.hcl}"
-VLLM_BAKE_FILE="${VLLM_BAKE_FILE:-docker/docker-bake.hcl}"
+VLLM_BAKE_FILE_PATH="${VLLM_BAKE_FILE_PATH:-docker/docker-bake.hcl}"
 BUILDER_NAME="${BUILDER_NAME:-vllm-builder}"
+CI_HCL_URL="${CI_HCL_URL:-https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vllm-project/ci-infra/main/docker/ci.hcl}"
 CI_HCL_PATH="/tmp/ci.hcl"
 BUILDKIT_SOCKET="/run/buildkit/buildkitd.sock"
 
@@ -180,9 +180,8 @@ prepare_cache_tags
 ecr_login
 
 # Environment info (for docs and human readers)
-#   CI_HCL_URL          - URL to ci.hcl (default: from ci-infra main branch)
 #   VLLM_CI_BRANCH      - ci-infra branch to use (default: main)
-#   VLLM_BAKE_FILE      - Path to vLLM's bake file (default: docker/docker-bake.hcl)
+#   VLLM_BAKE_FILE_PATH      - Path to vLLM's bake file (default: docker/docker-bake.hcl)
 #   BUILDER_NAME        - Name for buildx builder (default: vllm-builder)
 #
 # Build configuration (exported as environment variables for bake):
@@ -211,10 +210,9 @@ echo "IMAGE_TAG_LATEST: ${IMAGE_TAG_LATEST}"
 # print build configuration
 echo "--- :mag: Build configuration"
 echo "TARGET: ${TARGET}"
-echo "CI HCL URL: ${CI_HCL_URL}"
-echo "vLLM bake file: ${VLLM_BAKE_FILE}"
+echo "vLLM bake file: ${VLLM_BAKE_FILE_PATH}"
 echo "BUILDER_NAME: ${BUILDER_NAME}"
-echo "CI_HCL_PATH: ${CI_HCL_PATH}"
+echo "CI_HCL_URL: ${CI_HCL_URL}"
 echo "BUILDKIT_SOCKET: ${BUILDKIT_SOCKET}"
 
 echo "--- :mag: Cache tags"
@@ -227,11 +225,11 @@ check_and_skip_if_image_exists
 
 echo "--- :docker: Setting up Docker buildx bake"
 echo "Target: ${TARGET}"
-echo "CI HCL URL: ${CI_HCL_URL}"
-echo "vLLM bake file: ${VLLM_BAKE_FILE}"
+echo "vLLM bake file: ${VLLM_BAKE_FILE_PATH}"
+echo "CI HCL path: ${CI_HCL_PATH}"
 
-if [[ ! -f "${VLLM_BAKE_FILE}" ]]; then
-    echo "Error: vLLM bake file not found at ${VLLM_BAKE_FILE}"
+if [[ ! -f "${VLLM_BAKE_FILE_PATH}" ]]; then
+    echo "Error: vLLM bake file not found at ${VLLM_BAKE_FILE_PATH}"
     echo "Make sure you're running from the vLLM repository root"
     exit 1
 fi
@@ -240,15 +238,19 @@ echo "--- :arrow_down: Downloading ci.hcl"
 curl -sSfL -o "${CI_HCL_PATH}" "${CI_HCL_URL}"
 echo "Downloaded to ${CI_HCL_PATH}"
 
+if [[ ! -f "${CI_HCL_PATH}" ]]; then
+    echo "Error: ci.hcl not found at ${CI_HCL_PATH}"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
 setup_buildx_builder
 
-# Compute parent commit for cache fallback (if not already set)
 resolve_parent_commit
 export PARENT_COMMIT
 
 print_bake_config
 
 echo "--- :docker: Building ${TARGET}"
-docker --debug buildx bake -f "${VLLM_BAKE_FILE}" -f "${CI_HCL_PATH}" --progress plain "${TARGET}"
+docker --debug buildx bake -f "${VLLM_BAKE_FILE_PATH}" -f "${CI_HCL_PATH}" --progress plain "${TARGET}"
 
 echo "--- :white_check_mark: Build complete"
diff --git a/.buildkite/image_build/image_build.yaml b/.buildkite/image_build/image_build.yaml
index 6f601d384..163dd68c8 100644
--- a/.buildkite/image_build/image_build.yaml
+++ b/.buildkite/image_build/image_build.yaml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ steps:
     depends_on: []
     commands:
     - if [[ "$BUILDKITE_BRANCH" != "main" ]]; then .buildkite/image_build/image_build.sh $REGISTRY $REPO $BUILDKITE_COMMIT $BRANCH $VLLM_USE_PRECOMPILED $VLLM_MERGE_BASE_COMMIT $IMAGE_TAG; fi
-    - if [[ "$BUILDKITE_BRANCH" == "main" ]]; then .buildkite/image_build/image_build.sh $REGISTRY $REPO $BUILDKITE_COMMIT $BRANCH $VLLM_USE_PRECOMPILED $VLLM_MERGE_BASE_COMMIT $IMAGE_TAG_LATEST; fi
+    - if [[ "$BUILDKITE_BRANCH" == "main" ]]; then .buildkite/image_build/image_build.sh $REGISTRY $REPO $BUILDKITE_COMMIT $BRANCH $VLLM_USE_PRECOMPILED $VLLM_MERGE_BASE_COMMIT $IMAGE_TAG $IMAGE_TAG_LATEST; fi
     retry:
       automatic:
         - exit_status: -1  # Agent was lost
diff --git a/.buildkite/test_areas/distributed.yaml b/.buildkite/test_areas/distributed.yaml
index 57eabb6e4..51e1de3f0 100644
--- a/.buildkite/test_areas/distributed.yaml
+++ b/.buildkite/test_areas/distributed.yaml
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ steps:
   - tests/distributed/
   - tests/examples/offline_inference/data_parallel.py
   commands:
-    - ./.buildkite/scripts/run-multi-node-test.sh /vllm-workspace/tests 2 2 public.ecr.aws/q9t5s3a7/vllm-ci-postmerge-repo:0bec63fa317e1fbd62e19b0fc31c43c81bf89077 "VLLM_TEST_SAME_HOST=0 torchrun --nnodes 2 --nproc-per-node=2 --rdzv_backend=c10d --rdzv_endpoint=192.168.10.10 distributed/test_same_node.py | grep 'Same node test passed' && NUM_NODES=2 torchrun --nnodes 2 --nproc-per-node=2 --rdzv_backend=c10d --rdzv_endpoint=192.168.10.10 distributed/test_node_count.py | grep 'Node count test passed' && python3 ../examples/offline_inference/data_parallel.py -dp=2 -tp=1 --dp-num-nodes=2 --dp-node-rank=0 --dp-master-addr=192.168.10.10 --dp-master-port=12345 --enforce-eager --trust-remote-code && VLLM_MULTI_NODE=1 pytest -v -s distributed/test_multi_node_assignment.py && VLLM_MULTI_NODE=1 pytest -v -s distributed/test_pipeline_parallel.py" "VLLM_TEST_SAME_HOST=0 torchrun --nnodes 2 --nproc-per-node=2 --rdzv_backend=c10d --rdzv_endpoint=192.168.10.10 distributed/test_same_node.py | grep 'Same node test passed' && NUM_NODES=2 torchrun --nnodes 2 --nproc-per-node=2 --rdzv_backend=c10d --rdzv_endpoint=192.168.10.10 distributed/test_node_count.py | grep 'Node count test passed' && python3 ../examples/offline_inference/data_parallel.py -dp=2 -tp=1 --dp-num-nodes=2 --dp-node-rank=1 --dp-master-addr=192.168.10.10 --dp-master-port=12345 --enforce-eager --trust-remote-code"
+    - ./.buildkite/scripts/run-multi-node-test.sh /vllm-workspace/tests 2 2 $IMAGE_TAG "VLLM_TEST_SAME_HOST=0 torchrun --nnodes 2 --nproc-per-node=2 --rdzv_backend=c10d --rdzv_endpoint=192.168.10.10 distributed/test_same_node.py | grep 'Same node test passed' && NUM_NODES=2 torchrun --nnodes 2 --nproc-per-node=2 --rdzv_backend=c10d --rdzv_endpoint=192.168.10.10 distributed/test_node_count.py | grep 'Node count test passed' && python3 ../examples/offline_inference/data_parallel.py -dp=2 -tp=1 --dp-num-nodes=2 --dp-node-rank=0 --dp-master-addr=192.168.10.10 --dp-master-port=12345 --enforce-eager --trust-remote-code && VLLM_MULTI_NODE=1 pytest -v -s distributed/test_multi_node_assignment.py && VLLM_MULTI_NODE=1 pytest -v -s distributed/test_pipeline_parallel.py" "VLLM_TEST_SAME_HOST=0 torchrun --nnodes 2 --nproc-per-node=2 --rdzv_backend=c10d --rdzv_endpoint=192.168.10.10 distributed/test_same_node.py | grep 'Same node test passed' && NUM_NODES=2 torchrun --nnodes 2 --nproc-per-node=2 --rdzv_backend=c10d --rdzv_endpoint=192.168.10.10 distributed/test_node_count.py | grep 'Node count test passed' && python3 ../examples/offline_inference/data_parallel.py -dp=2 -tp=1 --dp-num-nodes=2 --dp-node-rank=1 --dp-master-addr=192.168.10.10 --dp-master-port=12345 --enforce-eager --trust-remote-code"
 
 - label: Distributed NixlConnector PD accuracy (4 GPUs)
   timeout_in_minutes: 30