diff --git a/.bazelversion b/.bazelversion
index eab246c06..e7fdef7e2 100644
--- a/.bazelversion
+++ b/.bazelversion
@@ -1 +1 @@
-7.3.2
+8.4.2
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bcb96fc98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+FROM gcr.io/cloud-marketplace/google/ubuntu2204:latest
+
+# minimal dependencies for getting bazel/bazelisk
+# tzdata needed for some conformance tests.
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y && \
+     DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+      build-essential \
+      bash \
+      ca-certificates \
+      git \
+      libssl-dev \
+      make \
+      pkg-config \
+      python3 \
+      tzdata \
+      unzip \
+      wget \
+      zip \
+      zlib1g-dev \
+      default-jdk-headless && \
+    apt-get clean
+
+ARG BAZELISK_RELEASE="https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazelisk/releases/download/v1.27.0/bazelisk-amd64.deb"
+ARG BAZELISK_CHKSUM="sha256:d8b00ea975c823e15263c80200ac42979e17368547fbff4ab177af035badfa83"
+
+# cloud build doesn't support --checksum arg to add
+ADD ${BAZELISK_RELEASE} /tmp/bazelisk.deb
+
+RUN apt-get install /tmp/bazelisk.deb
+
+RUN mkdir -p /workspace
+RUN mkdir -p /bazel
+
+# note: /usr/bin/bazel is also a symlink to bazelisk
+ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/bin/bazelisk"]
diff --git a/cloudbuild.yaml b/cloudbuild.yaml
index 4234c7c55..4ed07a3ad 100644
--- a/cloudbuild.yaml
+++ b/cloudbuild.yaml
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ steps:
         - name: 'golang:1.23.0'
           # check the integrity of the vendor directory
           args: ['scripts/verify-vendor.sh']
-        - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/bazel:7.3.2'
+        - name: 'gcr.io/cel-analysis/cel-go-bazelisk:latest'
           entrypoint: bazel
           args:
           - 'test'
diff --git a/conformance/conformance_test.bzl b/conformance/conformance_test.bzl
index b66686b45..019ae8701 100644
--- a/conformance/conformance_test.bzl
+++ b/conformance/conformance_test.bzl
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ def _expand_tests_to_skip(tests_to_skip):
 def _conformance_test_args(data, skip_tests, dashboard):
     args = []
     args.append("--skip_tests={}".format(",".join(_expand_tests_to_skip(skip_tests))))
-    args.append("--tests={}".format(",".join(["$(location " + test + ")" for test in data])))
+    args.append("--tests={}".format(",".join(["$(rlocationpath " + test + ")" for test in data])))
     if dashboard:
         args.append("--dashboard")
     return args