diff --git a/examples/docker/README.md b/examples/docker/README.md
index ea19ac26..9cf8c1d0 100644
--- a/examples/docker/README.md
+++ b/examples/docker/README.md
@@ -8,7 +8,12 @@ LanceDB allows exactly one writer + N readers per database URI, so the
 example runs the ingester and the MCP server as **two separate containers**
 sharing the same data volume:
 
-- **docling-serve** - Document conversion and chunking service
+- **docling-serve-1** / **docling-serve-2** - Two replicas of the
+  document conversion + chunking service. The ingester round-robins
+  jobs across them; running two means convert work overlaps and one
+  container restarting (e.g. for memory recycling) doesn't stall
+  ingest. Bumping to N replicas is the same pattern — duplicate the
+  service block and add the URL to `providers.docling_serve.base_url`.
 - **haiku-ingester** - Long-lived writer. Watches `/docs`, ingests new and
   changed files, queues retries, exposes the control plane on port 8765.
 - **haiku-rag** - Read-only MCP server on port 8001 for AI assistant
@@ -79,7 +84,8 @@ curl http://localhost:8765/dlq
 
 ## Ports
 
-- `5001` - docling-serve API (with UI enabled)
+- `5001` - docling-serve replica 1 API (with UI enabled, debug only)
+- `5002` - docling-serve replica 2 API (host port; container still listens on 5001)
 - `8001` - MCP server (read-only)
 - `8765` - ingester control plane (`/health`, `/jobs`, `/sources`, `/dlq`)
 
diff --git a/examples/docker/docker-compose.yml b/examples/docker/docker-compose.yml
index 43b29dac..ced8d224 100644
--- a/examples/docker/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/examples/docker/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,9 +1,30 @@
 services:
-  docling-serve:
+  # Two docling-serve replicas — the ingester round-robins jobs across them
+  # via the `providers.docling_serve.base_url` list in haiku.rag.yaml. Each
+  # serves the same image with the same env; running more than one is the
+  # supported scaling pattern for docling-serve since the upstream image
+  # processes one task at a time per instance by default.
+  docling-serve-1:
     image: quay.io/docling-project/docling-serve:latest
-    container_name: docling-serve
+    container_name: docling-serve-1
     ports:
-      - "5001:5001"
+      - "5001:5001"  # exposed on the host for ad-hoc debugging (5001)
+    environment:
+      - DOCLING_SERVE_ENABLE_UI=1
+    restart: unless-stopped
+    healthcheck:
+      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:5001/health"]
+      interval: 30s
+      timeout: 10s
+      retries: 3
+      start_period: 40s
+      start_interval: 5s
+
+  docling-serve-2:
+    image: quay.io/docling-project/docling-serve:latest
+    container_name: docling-serve-2
+    ports:
+      - "5002:5001"  # host 5002 → container 5001 (debug only)
     environment:
       - DOCLING_SERVE_ENABLE_UI=1
     restart: unless-stopped
@@ -43,8 +64,13 @@ services:
       - ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}
       - VOYAGE_API_KEY=${VOYAGE_API_KEY}
       - CO_API_KEY=${CO_API_KEY}
+      # Logfire emits spans when this is set; stays silent (no telemetry) when unset.
+      # Set LOGFIRE_TOKEN in examples/docker/.env (gitignored) to enable.
+      - LOGFIRE_TOKEN=${LOGFIRE_TOKEN:-}
     depends_on:
-      docling-serve:
+      docling-serve-1:
+        condition: service_healthy
+      docling-serve-2:
         condition: service_healthy
     healthcheck:
       # No curl in the slim image; use Python's stdlib instead.
diff --git a/examples/docker/haiku.rag.yaml.example b/examples/docker/haiku.rag.yaml.example
index ecc785f6..129cdab8 100644
--- a/examples/docker/haiku.rag.yaml.example
+++ b/examples/docker/haiku.rag.yaml.example
@@ -31,7 +31,11 @@ processing:
 
 providers:
   docling_serve:
-    base_url: http://docling-serve:5001
+    # Two replicas; ingester round-robins jobs across them, each call's
+    # submit / poll / result pinned to one instance.
+    base_url:
+      - http://docling-serve-1:5001
+      - http://docling-serve-2:5001
     api_key: ""
   ollama:
     base_url: http://host.docker.internal:11434