fix: allow NAT prereleases in agentic base image

Dockerfile.agentic-base

@@ -107,7 +107,10 @@ RUN /app/.venv/bin/python -c "import nmp.core.jobs; import nmp.core.entities; pr
 # package historically lagged the plugin packages (e.g. nvidia-nat==1.4.3 vs
 # nvidia-nat-core/eval/langchain==1.7.0), which caused ImportErrors at plugin
 # discovery (e.g. register_dataset_loader) and crashed `nat start fastapi`.
+# NAT 1.7.0 depends on prerelease transitive packages, so allow prereleases for
+# this isolated install step.
 RUN uv pip install --python /app/.venv/bin/python \
+        --prerelease=allow \
         "nvidia-nat[most]==1.7.0" nvidia-nat-atif==1.7.0 nvidia-nat-eval==1.7.0 nvidia-nat-mcp==1.7.0 && \
     uv pip install --python /app/.venv/bin/python -e /app/plugins/nemo-agents && \
     uv pip install --python /app/.venv/bin/python -e /app/plugins/nemo-agents/examples/calculator-agent && \

tests/agentic-use/requirements-nat.txt

@@ -15,18 +15,20 @@
 #
 #   python3.11 -m venv .venv-nat
 #   source .venv-nat/bin/activate
-#   pip install -r tests/agentic-use/requirements-nat.txt
+#   uv pip install --python .venv-nat/bin/python --prerelease=allow \
+#     -r tests/agentic-use/requirements-nat.txt
 #   nat --version
 #
 # OR use uv with an isolated venv:
 #
 #   uv venv .venv-nat --python 3.11
-#   uv pip install -r tests/agentic-use/requirements-nat.txt --python .venv-nat/bin/python
+#   uv pip install --python .venv-nat/bin/python --prerelease=allow \
+#     -r tests/agentic-use/requirements-nat.txt
 #
 # DOCKER CONTAINER
 # ----------------
 # Dockerfile.agentic-base installs this automatically during image build:
-#   uv pip install "nvidia-nat[mcp,eval,langchain]"
+#   uv pip install --prerelease=allow "nvidia-nat[most]==1.7.0" ...
 
 nvidia-nat[mcp,eval,langchain]
 nvidia-nat-atif

tests/agentic-use/tests/test_agentic_base_dockerfile.py

@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2025-2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from pathlib import Path
+
+REPO_ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[3]
+DOCKERFILE = REPO_ROOT / "Dockerfile.agentic-base"
+
+
+def _nat_install_command() -> str:
+    dockerfile = DOCKERFILE.read_text()
+    start = dockerfile.index("RUN uv pip install --python /app/.venv/bin/python")
+    end = dockerfile.index("uv pip install --python /app/.venv/bin/python -e /app/plugins/nemo-agents", start)
+    return dockerfile[start:end]
+
+
+def test_agentic_base_nat_install_allows_prereleases() -> None:
+    command = _nat_install_command()
+
+    assert "--prerelease=allow" in command
+    assert command.index("--prerelease=allow") < command.index('"nvidia-nat[most]==1.7.0"')
+
+
+def test_agentic_base_nat_install_pins_package_family() -> None:
+    command = _nat_install_command()
+
+    for requirement in (
+        '"nvidia-nat[most]==1.7.0"',
+        "nvidia-nat-atif==1.7.0",
+        "nvidia-nat-eval==1.7.0",
+        "nvidia-nat-mcp==1.7.0",
+    ):
+        assert requirement in command