diff --git a/eval_protocol/cli_commands/local_test.py b/eval_protocol/cli_commands/local_test.py
index 68b3938a..97e02e9f 100644
--- a/eval_protocol/cli_commands/local_test.py
+++ b/eval_protocol/cli_commands/local_test.py
@@ -9,13 +9,11 @@
 
 
 def _find_dockerfiles(root: str) -> List[str]:
-    skip_dirs = {".venv", "venv", "node_modules", "dist", "build", "__pycache__", ".git", "vendor"}
+    """Return Dockerfiles in the project root only (no recursive search)."""
     dockerfiles: List[str] = []
-    for dirpath, dirnames, filenames in os.walk(root):
-        dirnames[:] = [d for d in dirnames if d not in skip_dirs and not d.startswith(".")]
-        for name in filenames:
-            if name == "Dockerfile":
-                dockerfiles.append(os.path.join(dirpath, name))
+    root_dockerfile = os.path.join(root, "Dockerfile")
+    if os.path.isfile(root_dockerfile):
+        dockerfiles.append(root_dockerfile)
     return dockerfiles
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_cli_local_test.py b/tests/test_cli_local_test.py
index 0be9c2fa..37d63b30 100644
--- a/tests/test_cli_local_test.py
+++ b/tests/test_cli_local_test.py
@@ -253,3 +253,33 @@ def _fake_host(target: str) -> int:
     # Expect project-relative path plus selector
     rel = os.path.relpath(str(test_file), str(project))
     assert captured["target"] == f"{rel}::test_dummy"
+
+
+def test_find_dockerfiles_top_level_only(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    # Project root with both top-level and nested Dockerfiles – only top-level should be returned.
+    project = tmp_path / "proj"
+    project.mkdir()
+    top_level = project / "Dockerfile"
+    top_level.write_text("FROM python:3.11-slim\n", encoding="utf-8")
+    nested_dir = project / "nested"
+    nested_dir.mkdir()
+    (nested_dir / "Dockerfile").write_text("FROM python:3.11-slim\n", encoding="utf-8")
+
+    from eval_protocol.cli_commands import local_test as lt
+
+    dockerfiles = lt._find_dockerfiles(str(project))
+    assert dockerfiles == [str(top_level)]
+
+
+def test_find_dockerfiles_ignores_nested_only(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    # Project root without top-level Dockerfile but with nested ones – should return empty.
+    project = tmp_path / "proj"
+    project.mkdir()
+    nested_dir = project / "nested"
+    nested_dir.mkdir()
+    (nested_dir / "Dockerfile").write_text("FROM python:3.11-slim\n", encoding="utf-8")
+
+    from eval_protocol.cli_commands import local_test as lt
+
+    dockerfiles = lt._find_dockerfiles(str(project))
+    assert dockerfiles == []