diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index b0dd97e..d4f39f9 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@ grpcio-tools
 redis
 pyyaml
 flask
-ipdb
-ipython
 sqlalchemy
 psycopg[binary]
 psutil
diff --git a/ventis/controller/cloud_provider_logic/EC2/_runtime.py b/ventis/controller/cloud_provider_logic/EC2/_runtime.py
index 4d5f766..71109f1 100644
--- a/ventis/controller/cloud_provider_logic/EC2/_runtime.py
+++ b/ventis/controller/cloud_provider_logic/EC2/_runtime.py
@@ -238,11 +238,12 @@ def _bootstrap_instance(host, spec, replica_index, cfg, redis_host, redis_port,
     logger.info("Transferring image %s to %s", image, host)
     result = subprocess.run(
         "set -o pipefail; "
-        f"docker save {shlex.quote(image)} | ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no "
+        f"docker save {shlex.quote(image)} | zstd -T0 | ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no "
         f"-o IdentitiesOnly=yes -o ConnectTimeout=10 "
         f"-o ServerAliveInterval=10 -o ServerAliveCountMax=3 "
         f"-i {shlex.quote(key)} "
-        f"{shlex.quote(f'{ssh_user}@{host}')} 'sudo docker load'",
+        f"{shlex.quote(f'{ssh_user}@{host}')} "
+        "'set -o pipefail; zstd -d | sudo docker load'",
         shell=True,
         capture_output=True,
         text=True,
diff --git a/ventis/stub_generator.py b/ventis/stub_generator.py
index 54a46b9..08c8273 100644
--- a/ventis/stub_generator.py
+++ b/ventis/stub_generator.py
@@ -17,9 +17,7 @@
 import yaml
 
 # Packages every agent container needs regardless of its specific business logic.
-# grpcio-tools/pyyaml/ipdb/ipython aren't needed/used, but keeping to keep the scope constrained right now
-#     - Leave a comment if you want me to remove these, I kept them in since you originally had them but they aren't used
-BASE_AGENT_REQUIREMENTS = ["grpcio", "grpcio-tools", "redis", "pyyaml", "psutil", "ipdb", "ipython", "boto3"]
+BASE_AGENT_REQUIREMENTS = ["grpcio", "grpcio-tools", "redis", "pyyaml", "psutil", "boto3"]
 
 # Workflow will always require these
 BASE_WORKFLOW_REQUIREMENTS = BASE_AGENT_REQUIREMENTS + ["flask", "sqlalchemy", "psycopg[binary]"]