diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index 568a4d2..9e95b9e 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 OPENAI_API_KEY=ADD-YOUR-OPENAI_API_KEY-HERE
 ENVIRONMENT=local
-DOCKERHUB_USERNAME=ADD-YOUR-DOCKERHUB_USERNAME-HERE
+DOCKERHUB_USERNAME=jwu-labs
 DOCKERHUB_ACCESS_TOKEN=ADD-YOUR-DOCKERHUB_ACCESS_TOKEN-HERE
 LLM_TOOL_CHOICE=required
 LOGGING_LEVEL=20
diff --git a/.github/workflows/testsPython.yml b/.github/workflows/testsPython.yml
index 452f71d..880d52c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/testsPython.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/testsPython.yml
@@ -69,11 +69,93 @@ jobs:
   notifications:
     needs: python-unit-tests
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    if: always()
+    permissions:
+      contents: read
+      actions: read
     steps:
-      - name: Notify on test results
+      - name: Notify on successful test results
+        if: needs.python-unit-tests.result == 'success'
+        run: |          
+          echo "### ✅ Build Passed!" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+          echo "All unit tests completed successfully for commit ${GITHUB_SHA::7}." >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+
+      - name: Notify on failed test results (summary)
+        if: needs.python-unit-tests.result == 'failure'
+        run: |
+          echo "### ❌ Build Failed!" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+          echo "The Python Unit Tests failed on commit [${GITHUB_SHA::7}](${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/commit/${{ github.sha }})." >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+          echo "**Triggered by**: ${{ github.actor }}" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+          echo "Please check the logs in the 'python-unit-tests' job to identify the error." >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+          echo "" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+          echo "---" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+          echo "**Note:** An automated incident report with failure details has been emailed to the designated recipients." >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+
+      - name: Build incident report
+        id: report
+        if: needs.python-unit-tests.result == 'failure'
+        env:
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+        run: |
+          echo "short_sha=${GITHUB_SHA::7}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+          sleep 10
+
+          # Fetch Job ID for python-unit-tests
+          JOB_ID=$(gh api repos/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}/jobs \
+            --jq '.jobs[] | select(.name=="python-unit-tests") | .id')
+
+          # Fetch job logs and strip ANSI color codes and ISO8601 timestamps
+          CLEAN_LOGS=$(gh api repos/${{ github.repository }}/actions/jobs/$JOB_ID/logs | \
+            sed -r "s/\x1B\[([0-9]{1,3}(;[0-9]{1,2})?)?[mGK]//g" | \
+            sed -r 's/^[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}T[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}\.[0-9]+Z //')
+
+          # Extract summaries
+          FAILED_TESTS=$(echo "$CLEAN_LOGS" | grep -Ei "ERROR: test_|FAILED \(errors=[0-9]+\)" || echo "No test failures identified.")
+          ROOT_CAUSE=$(echo "$CLEAN_LOGS" | grep -Ei "ImportError:|AssertionError:|ValueError:|TypeError:|NameError:|AttributeError:" | sort -u || echo "Could not determine root cause. Please see full logs for details.")
+
+          # Build report
+          {
+            echo "incident_report<<EOF"        
+            echo "❌ Python Unit Tests Failed - Incident Report"
+            echo ""
+            echo "Repository: ${{ github.repository }}"
+            echo "Branch: ${{ github.ref_name }}"
+            echo "Commit: ${GITHUB_SHA::7}"
+            echo "Triggered by: ${{ github.actor }}"
+            echo ""
+            echo "────────────────────────────"
+            echo "🧪 FAILED TESTS"
+            echo "────────────────────────────"
+            echo "$FAILED_TESTS"
+            echo ""
+            echo "────────────────────────────"
+            echo "🔥 ROOT CAUSE"
+            echo "────────────────────────────"
+            echo "$ROOT_CAUSE"
+            echo ""
+            echo "────────────────────────────"
+            echo "🔗 VIEW FULL LOGS:"
+            echo "${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}"
+            echo "EOF"
+          } >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+
+      - name: Notify on failed test results (email)
+        if: needs.python-unit-tests.result == 'failure'
+        uses: dawidd6/action-send-mail@v3
+        with:
+          server_address: smtp.gmail.com
+          server_port: 465
+          username: ${{ secrets.EMAIL_USERNAME }}
+          password: ${{ secrets.EMAIL_PASSWORD }}
+          subject: "❌ Python Unit Tests Failed - ${{ github.repository }} (${{ steps.report.outputs.short_sha }})"
+          to: ${{ secrets.NOTIFY_EMAIL }}
+          from: "GitHub Actions Notifications <${{ secrets.EMAIL_USERNAME }}>"
+          body: |
+            ${{ steps.report.outputs.incident_report }}
+
+      - name: Notify on cancelled test runs
+        if: needs.python-unit-tests.result == 'cancelled'
         run: |
-          if [ "${{ needs.python-unit-tests.result }}" == "success" ]; then
-            echo "success notifications go here"
-          else
-            echo "failure notifications go here"
-          fi
+          echo "### ⚠️ Build Cancelled" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+          echo "The workflow was cancelled before completion." >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+          echo "**Commit:** [${GITHUB_SHA::7}](${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/commit/${{ github.sha }})" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index c7d04ba..08f0dbf 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# temp directory for type checks
+.mypy_cache/
+
 # my own homegrown file to store coverage report output from Docker.
 coverage.out
 
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 7bebd1b..570b1fc 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -129,8 +129,8 @@ docker-coverage:
 		/bin/bash -c "python -m coverage run --source=app --omit='app/tests/*' -m unittest discover -s app/tests && python -m coverage report -m --omit='app/tests/*' && python -m coverage xml --omit='app/tests/*'"
 
 docker-prune:
-	@if [ "`docker ps -aq`" ]; then \
-		docker stop $(docker ps -aq); \
+	@if [ -n "$$(docker ps -aq)" ]; then \
+		docker stop $$(docker ps -aq); \
 	fi
 	@docker container prune -f
 	@docker image prune -af