diff --git a/changelog.d/680.fix.md b/changelog.d/680.fix.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b18ad22a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/680.fix.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fixes a environment generation bug that caused CONFIG envvar to be invalid JSON
diff --git a/openllm-python/src/openllm/bundle/_package.py b/openllm-python/src/openllm/bundle/_package.py
index df5e7d51..bed265b8 100644
--- a/openllm-python/src/openllm/bundle/_package.py
+++ b/openllm-python/src/openllm/bundle/_package.py
@@ -95,6 +95,9 @@ def construct_docker_options(
     llm._prompt_template,
     use_current_env=False,
   )
+  # XXX: We need to quote this so that the envvar in container recognize as valid json
+  environ['OPENLLM_CONFIG'] = f"'{environ['OPENLLM_CONFIG']}'"
+  environ.pop('BENTOML_HOME', None)  # NOTE: irrelevant in container
   return DockerOptions(
     base_image=oci.RefResolver.construct_base_image(container_registry, container_version_strategy),
     env=environ,
diff --git a/openllm-python/src/openllm_cli/entrypoint.py b/openllm-python/src/openllm_cli/entrypoint.py
index f30f25e3..91991b92 100644
--- a/openllm-python/src/openllm_cli/entrypoint.py
+++ b/openllm-python/src/openllm_cli/entrypoint.py
@@ -646,7 +646,7 @@ def process_environ(
       'OPENLLM_ADAPTER_MAP': orjson.dumps(adapter_map).decode(),
       'OPENLLM_SERIALIZATION': serialisation,
       'OPENLLM_BACKEND': llm.__llm_backend__,
-      'OPENLLM_CONFIG': f'"""{config.model_dump_json(flatten=True).decode()}"""',
+      'OPENLLM_CONFIG': config.model_dump_json(flatten=True).decode(),
       'TORCH_DTYPE': str(llm._torch_dtype).split('.')[-1],
       'TRUST_REMOTE_CODE': str(llm.trust_remote_code),
     }