diff --git a/packages/cli/package.json b/packages/cli/package.json
index 8b2c002aa..a9b9e0fbc 100644
--- a/packages/cli/package.json
+++ b/packages/cli/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@openrouter/spawn",
-  "version": "1.0.27",
+  "version": "1.0.28",
   "type": "module",
   "bin": {
     "spawn": "cli.js"
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/index.ts b/packages/cli/src/index.ts
index 0892969e7..8f09decbe 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/index.ts
@@ -959,12 +959,12 @@ async function main(): Promise<void> {
 
   // fast_provision experiment: if the user did NOT pass --beta or --fast,
   // bucket them on the PostHog `fast_provision` flag. The `test` variant
-  // turns on images by default; control behaves as before.
+  // turns on images + docker by default; control behaves as before.
   // Exposure is captured for both variants so PostHog can compute conversion.
   if (!userOptedIntoBeta) {
     const variant = getFeatureFlag("fast_provision", "control");
     if (variant === "test") {
-      betaFeatures.push("images");
+      betaFeatures.push("images", "docker");
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/local/local.ts b/packages/cli/src/local/local.ts
index 4183bff53..bfa5d5f4e 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/local/local.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/local/local.ts
@@ -460,7 +460,6 @@ export async function ensureDocker(): Promise<void> {
       process.exit(1);
     }
   } else {
-    logStep("Docker not found — installing docker.io...");
     const hasSudo =
       Bun.spawnSync(
         [
@@ -475,12 +474,32 @@ export async function ensureDocker(): Promise<void> {
           ],
         },
       ).exitCode === 0;
-    const prefix = hasSudo ? "sudo " : "";
+    const hasApt =
+      Bun.spawnSync(
+        [
+          "which",
+          "apt-get",
+        ],
+        {
+          stdio: [
+            "ignore",
+            "ignore",
+            "ignore",
+          ],
+        },
+      ).exitCode === 0;
+    // Prefer apt-get on Debian/Ubuntu (small, fast, distro-trusted).
+    // Fall back to Docker's convenience script for Fedora/Arch/Alpine/etc.
+    const installLabel = hasApt ? "docker.io" : "via get.docker.com";
+    logStep(`Docker not found — installing ${installLabel}...`);
+    const installCmd = hasApt
+      ? `${hasSudo ? "sudo " : ""}apt-get update -qq && ${hasSudo ? "sudo " : ""}apt-get install -y -qq docker.io`
+      : `curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | ${hasSudo ? "sudo sh" : "sh"}`;
     const result = Bun.spawnSync(
       [
         "bash",
         "-c",
-        `${prefix}apt-get update -qq && ${prefix}apt-get install -y -qq docker.io`,
+        installCmd,
       ],
       {
         stdio: [
@@ -491,7 +510,8 @@ export async function ensureDocker(): Promise<void> {
       },
     );
     if (result.exitCode !== 0) {
-      logInfo("Auto-install failed. Install Docker manually: sudo apt-get install docker.io");
+      const manualHint = hasApt ? "sudo apt-get install docker.io" : "https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/";
+      logInfo(`Auto-install failed. Install Docker manually: ${manualHint}`);
       process.exit(1);
     }
   }