diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 72988a5..846f006 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -10,6 +10,26 @@ RUN apt-get update && \
     apt-get clean && \
     rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
+# Install required packages for adding Docker repository
+RUN apt-get update && \
+    apt-get install -y \
+    ca-certificates \
+    curl \
+    gnupg \
+    lsb-release \
+    apt-transport-https \
+    software-properties-common
+
+# Add Docker’s official GPG key
+RUN curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg | gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg
+
+# Set up the Docker repository
+RUN echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian $(lsb_release -cs) stable" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list
+
+# Install Docker CLI
+RUN apt-get update && \
+    apt-get install -y docker-ce-cli
+
 RUN pip install virtualenv
 
 # Copy the requirements file into the container
@@ -18,12 +38,6 @@ COPY requirements.txt ./
 # Install any needed packages specified in requirements.txt
 RUN pip install --trusted-host pypi.python.org -r requirements.txt
 
-# Create a virtual environment for the target repo and install its requirements if available
-# This must be defined in a file llm_target_repo_requirements.txt
-RUN virtualenv /venv
-COPY ./llm_target_repo_requirements.txt /llm_target_repo_requirements.txt
-RUN if [ -f /llm_target_repo_requirements.txt ]; then /venv/bin/pip install -r /llm_target_repo_requirements.txt; fi
-
 # Copy the rest of the application code
 COPY . .
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7409462..92bae12 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -42,6 +42,9 @@ To get started with LLM Repo Assistant, follow these steps:
 2. Clone the LLM Repo Assistant repo
 3. Add an `.llmignore` file to the root directory of your target repo - this tells
 LLM Repo Assistant about files in your target repo that you want ignored by the LLM.
+3. Build and run the docker container for your code repo, and add the name of 
+the container to `TARGET_REPO_DOCKER_IMAGE_NAME` in `.env`
+in the LLM Repo Assistant root directory. (i.e. `TARGET_REPO_DOCKER_IMAGE_NAME=insert-your-container-name`)
 4. If you want the API to be able to run tests on your target repo,
 then edit the requirements file to the root directory of the LLM Repo Assistant repo
 called `llm_target_repo_requirements.txt`. This file should define the python environment
@@ -49,7 +52,7 @@ your tests should run in and should include `pytest`.
 5. Navigate to the `llm_repo_assistant` cloned repository and build the
 Docker image to run LLM Repo Assistant with `docker build -t llm_repo_assistant .`
 6. Run LLM Repo Assistant locally in a docker container with the following command:
-`docker run --rm -v "/path/to/cloned/repo/llm_repo_assistant:/app" -v "/path/to/your/code/repo:/repo" -p 8000:8000 --name llm_repo_assistant llm_repo_assistant`
+`docker run --rm -v "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock" -v "/path/to/cloned/repo/llm_repo_assistant:/app" -v "/path/to/your/code/repo:/repo" -p 8000:8000 --name llm_repo_assistant llm_repo_assistant`
 7. View and test the API endpoints by visiting `localhost:8000/docs`
 
 ### Adding ChatGPT plugin
diff --git a/llm_target_repo_requirements.txt b/llm_target_repo_requirements.txt
index bf58815..891086e 100644
--- a/llm_target_repo_requirements.txt
+++ b/llm_target_repo_requirements.txt
@@ -1,36 +1,2 @@
-anyio==3.6.2
-astunparse==1.6.3
-certifi==2022.12.7
-click==8.1.3
-dnspython==2.3.0
-email-validator==2.0.0.post1
-exceptiongroup==1.1.1
-fastapi==0.95.1
-h11==0.14.0
-httpcore==0.17.0
-httptools==0.5.0
-httpx==0.24.0
-idna==3.4
-iniconfig==2.0.0
-itsdangerous==2.1.2
-Jinja2==3.1.2
-MarkupSafe==2.1.2
-orjson==3.8.10
-packaging==23.1
-pluggy==1.0.0
-pydantic==1.10.7
 pytest==7.3.1
-python-dotenv==1.0.0
-python-multipart==0.0.6
-PyYAML==6.0
-six==1.16.0
-sniffio==1.3.0
-starlette==0.26.1
-tomli==2.0.1
-typing-extensions==4.5.0
-ujson==5.7.0
-uvicorn==0.21.1
-uvloop==0.17.0
-watchfiles==0.19.0
-websockets==11.0.2
 emoji
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index a80ef89..83686f3 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 anyio==3.6.2
 astunparse==1.6.3
 certifi==2022.12.7
+charset-normalizer==3.1.0
 click==8.1.3
 dnspython==2.3.0
+docker==6.0.1
 email-validator==2.0.0.post1
 exceptiongroup==1.1.1
 fastapi==0.95.1
@@ -23,13 +25,16 @@ pytest==7.3.1
 python-dotenv==1.0.0
 python-multipart==0.0.6
 PyYAML==6.0
+requests==2.29.0
 six==1.16.0
 sniffio==1.3.0
 starlette==0.26.1
 tomli==2.0.1
 typing-extensions==4.5.0
 ujson==5.7.0
+urllib3==1.26.15
 uvicorn==0.21.1
 uvloop==0.17.0
 watchfiles==0.19.0
+websocket-client==1.5.1
 websockets==11.0.2
diff --git a/src/api/endpoints/command.py b/src/api/endpoints/command.py
index bbeed3c..974a72c 100644
--- a/src/api/endpoints/command.py
+++ b/src/api/endpoints/command.py
@@ -2,13 +2,14 @@
 import sys
 from enum import Enum
 import subprocess
-from typing import Optional, List
+from typing import Optional, List, Tuple
 from fastapi import HTTPException, APIRouter
 from contextlib import contextmanager
+import docker
 
 from src.schemas import TestRunRequest
 from src.core.config import settings
-from src.utils import get_filesystem_path
+from src.utils import get_filesystem_path, run_command_in_image
 
 
 router = APIRouter()
@@ -18,8 +19,9 @@ class TestFramework(str, Enum):
     pytest = "pytest"
 
 def run_tests(test_command: List[str], 
+              docker_image_name: str,
               test_file_path: Optional[str] = None,
-              test_function_name: Optional[str] = None) -> str:
+              test_function_name: Optional[str] = None) -> Tuple[int, str]:
     if test_file_path and not test_function_name:
         test_command.extend([test_file_path])
     if test_function_name and not test_file_path:
@@ -31,23 +33,15 @@ def run_tests(test_command: List[str],
     os.chdir(settings.REPO_ROOT)
 
     try:
-        result = subprocess.run(test_command, check=True, text=True, capture_output=True)
-        return result.stdout
+        #result = subprocess.run(test_command, check=True, text=True, capture_output=True)
+        #return result.stdout
+        exit_code, output_str = run_command_in_image(docker_image_name, test_command)
+        return exit_code, output_str
     except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
         return e.stdout + e.stderr
     finally:
         os.chdir(original_cwd)
 
-@contextmanager
-def activate_virtualenv(venv_path):
-    """Temporarily add the virtual environment to sys.path."""
-    original_sys_path = sys.path.copy()
-    sys.path.insert(0, venv_path + "/lib/python3.9/site-packages")
-    try:
-        yield
-    finally:
-        sys.path = original_sys_path
-
 @router.post("/run_tests/{test_framework}")
 async def run_tests_endpoint(test_framework: TestFramework, test_run_request: TestRunRequest):
     """
@@ -55,23 +49,21 @@ async def run_tests_endpoint(test_framework: TestFramework, test_run_request: Te
     If no test file or function is specified, all available tests are run. Currently only `pytest` is supported.
     """
 
-    venv_path = "/venv"
-
     test_file_path = ""
     if test_run_request.test_file_path:
         test_file_path = get_filesystem_path(test_run_request.test_file_path)
 
     if test_framework.lower() == "pytest":
-        if not os.path.exists(venv_path + "/lib/python3.9/site-packages"):
-            error_message = """
-            Virtual environment for target repo not found. Provide a 'llm_target_repo_requirements.txt' file in your
-            target repo to use the run_tests endpoint and re-build the docker container. 
-            """
-            raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail=error_message)
-        test_command = [os.path.join(venv_path, "bin", "python"), "-m", "pytest"]
+        test_command = ["python", "-m", "pytest"]
     else:
         raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail="Unsupported test framework")
 
-    test_output = run_tests(test_command, test_file_path, test_run_request.test_function_name)
+    try:
+        test_output = run_tests(test_command,
+                                settings.TARGET_REPO_DOCKER_IMAGE_NAME,
+                                test_file_path,
+                                test_run_request.test_function_name)
+    except docker.errors.ImageNotFound:
+        raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail=f"Target repo docker image with name '{settings.TARGET_REPO_DOCKER_IMAGE_NAME}' not found.")
     return {"status": "success", "test_output": test_output}
 
diff --git a/src/core/config.py b/src/core/config.py
index 5a26c35..d1592cf 100644
--- a/src/core/config.py
+++ b/src/core/config.py
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@ def assemble_cors_origins(cls, v: Union[str, List[str]]) -> Union[List[str], str
 
     LLMIGNORE_PATH: Optional[FilePath] = None
 
+    TARGET_REPO_DOCKER_IMAGE_NAME: str
+
+    TARGET_REPO_PATH: str
+
     class Config:
         env_file = ".env"
         case_sensitive = True
diff --git a/src/utils.py b/src/utils.py
index c529fb6..dd745cf 100644
--- a/src/utils.py
+++ b/src/utils.py
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
 from typing import List, Dict, Any
 from fastapi import HTTPException
 import fnmatch
+import docker
+from typing import Tuple
 
 from src.core.config import settings
 
@@ -157,3 +159,30 @@ def get_git_diff(directory: str) -> str:
     )
     return result.stdout
 
+
+def run_command_in_image(image_name: str, command: List[str]) -> Tuple[int, str]:
+    client = docker.from_env()
+
+    # Run the command in a new container
+    container = client.containers.run(image=image_name, 
+                                      command=command, 
+                                      detach=True,
+                                      working_dir=settings.REPO_ROOT,
+                                      volumes={settings.TARGET_REPO_PATH: {"bind": settings.REPO_ROOT, "mode": "rw"}})
+
+    # Wait for the container to finish executing
+    result = container.wait()
+
+    # Fetch the logs (standard output and standard error)
+    output = container.logs()
+
+    # Clean up the container
+    container.remove()
+
+    # Decode the output to a string
+    output_str = output.decode("utf-8")
+
+    # The result contains a dictionary with status and StatusCode (exit code)
+    exit_code = result['StatusCode']
+
+    return exit_code, output_str