diff --git a/.devcontainer/Dockerfile b/.devcontainer/Dockerfile
index 67582c3..562b0c1 100644
--- a/.devcontainer/Dockerfile
+++ b/.devcontainer/Dockerfile
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 # ghcr.io/eda-labs/eda-devcontainer
 FROM public.ecr.aws/docker/library/debian:bookworm-slim
 
-ARG EDA_VERSION=25.12.1
+# change this one to change EDA version
+ARG EDA_VERSION=25.12.2
+
 ARG EDA_PLAYGROUND_REPO=nokia-eda/playground
 ARG EDA_PLAYGROUND_DIR=/home/vscode/.playground
 
+# set this one before the substitution
+ENV CODESPACE_EDA_VERSION=$EDA_VERSION
+
 ENV EDA_VERSION=${EDA_VERSION//./-}
 ENV EDA_PLAYGROUND_REPO=$EDA_PLAYGROUND_REPO
 ENV EDA_PLAYGROUND_DIR=$EDA_PLAYGROUND_DIR
diff --git a/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json b/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
index 27276e8..e33dc6c 100644
--- a/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
+++ b/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
     "name": "Nokia EDA in GitHub Codespaces",
-    "image": "ghcr.io/eda-labs/codespaces/base:25.12.1-1",
+    "image": "ghcr.io/eda-labs/codespaces/base:25.12.2-1",
     "features": {
         "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/docker-in-docker:2": {
             "version": "latest",
diff --git a/.devcontainer/overrides.mk b/.devcontainer/overrides.mk
index 4c1a180..cb5a093 100644
--- a/.devcontainer/overrides.mk
+++ b/.devcontainer/overrides.mk
@@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ KPT_RETRY ?= 5
 KPT_RECONCILE_TIMEOUT ?= 3m
 KPT_LIVE_APPLY_ARGS += --reconcile-timeout=$(KPT_RECONCILE_TIMEOUT)
 
+ifdef CODESPACE_EDA_VERSION
+EDA_CORE_VERSION=$(CODESPACE_EDA_VERSION)
+EDA_APPS_VERSION=$(CODESPACE_EDA_VERSION)
+EDABUILDER_VERSION=$(CODESPACE_EDA_VERSION)
+endif
+
 # Override the INSTALL_KPT_PACKAGE macro
 # 
 # Set the --reconcile-timeout flag so that KPT doesn't just hang for a while
diff --git a/.devcontainer/postCreate.sh b/.devcontainer/postCreate.sh
index 6256e8b..c0d0b70 100755
--- a/.devcontainer/postCreate.sh
+++ b/.devcontainer/postCreate.sh
@@ -3,18 +3,13 @@ source .devcontainer/utils.sh
 
 cd $EDA_PLAYGROUND_DIR
 
-# get token
-encoded=$(grep 'GH_PKG_TOKEN ?=' "Makefile" | sed 's/.*?= *//')
-prefix=$(printf '%s' 'Z2hwCg==' | base64 -d)
-suffix=$(printf '%s' "$encoded" | base64 -d | cut -c 4- | tr -d '\n')
-TOKEN="${prefix}${suffix}"
-
 log "Starting image prepull"
 T_START=$(date +%s)
 # preload images into the cluster from the EDA core list
-# to reduce the number of jobs: PARALLEL_JOBS=$(($(nproc) - 1))
-PARALLEL_JOBS=$(nproc)
-docker exec k3d-eda-demo-server-0 sh -c "cat /opt/images.txt | xargs -P $PARALLEL_JOBS -I {} crictl pull --creds nokia-eda-bot:$TOKEN {}"
+# to reduce the number of jobs:
+PARALLEL_JOBS=$(($(nproc) - 1))
+# PARALLEL_JOBS=$(nproc)
+docker exec k3d-eda-demo-server-0 sh -c "cat /opt/images.txt | xargs -P $PARALLEL_JOBS -I {} sh -c 'echo \"[\$(date +%H:%M:%S)] Pulling image {}\"; crictl pull {} >/dev/null 2>&1'"
 
 T_END=$(date +%s)
 log "Images pulled. Took $((T_END-T_START)) seconds."