diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 43ef398..3dc5ecb 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -42,11 +42,10 @@ project(tritononnxruntimebackend LANGUAGES C CXX)
 #   - Set TRITON_BUILD_ONNXRUNTIME_VERSION to the version of ONNX
 #     Runtime that you want to be built for the backend.
 #
-#   - Set TRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER to the Triton container to use as a
-#     base for the build. On linux you can instead set
-#     TRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER_VERSION to the Triton version that you
-#     want to target with the build and the corresponding container
-#     from NGC will be used.
+#   - Set TRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER to the container to use as a base for
+#     the build. Required: the image is never inferred here, so that
+#     whoever drives the build decides it. It must provide the CUDA
+#     toolchain when GPU support is enabled.
 #
 #   - Optionally set TRITON_BUILD_CUDA_VERSION and
 #     TRITON_BUILD_CUDA_HOME. If not set these are automatically set
@@ -91,8 +90,7 @@ option(TRITON_ENABLE_ONNXRUNTIME_TENSORRT
   "Enable TensorRT execution provider for ONNXRuntime backend in server" OFF)
 option(TRITON_ENABLE_ONNXRUNTIME_OPENVINO
   "Enable OpenVINO execution provider for ONNXRuntime backend in server" OFF)
-set(TRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER "" CACHE STRING "Triton container to use a base for build")
-set(TRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER_VERSION "" CACHE STRING "Triton container version to target")
+set(TRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER "" CACHE STRING "Container to use as a base for build")
 set(TRITON_BUILD_ONNXRUNTIME_VERSION "" CACHE STRING "ONNXRuntime version to build")
 set(TRITON_BUILD_ONNXRUNTIME_OPENVINO_VERSION "" CACHE STRING "ONNXRuntime OpenVINO version to build")
 set(TRITON_BUILD_TARGET_PLATFORM "" CACHE STRING "Target platform for ONNXRuntime build")
@@ -149,13 +147,9 @@ if(NOT TRITON_ONNXRUNTIME_DOCKER_BUILD)
 
 else()
 
-  if(NOT TRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER AND NOT TRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER_VERSION)
-    message(FATAL_ERROR
-      "TRITON_BUILD_ONNXRUNTIME_VERSION requires TRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER or TRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER_VERSION")
-  endif()
-
   if(NOT TRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER)
-    set(TRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER "nvcr.io/nvidia/tritonserver:${TRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER_VERSION}-py3-min")
+    message(FATAL_ERROR
+      "TRITON_BUILD_ONNXRUNTIME_VERSION requires TRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER")
   endif()
 
   set(TRITON_ONNXRUNTIME_DOCKER_IMAGE "tritonserver_onnxruntime")
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index cc34621..b935952 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -44,14 +44,14 @@ Runtime version and a Triton container version that you want to use
 with the backend. You can find the combination of versions used in a
 particular Triton release in the TRITON_VERSION_MAP at the top of
 build.py in the branch matching the Triton release you are interested
-in. For example, to build the ONNX Runtime backend for Triton 23.04,
-use the versions from TRITON_VERSION_MAP in the [r23.04 branch of
-build.py](https://github.com/triton-inference-server/server/blob/r23.04/build.py#L73).
+in. For example, to build the ONNX Runtime backend for Triton 26.09,
+use the versions from TRITON_VERSION_MAP in the [r26.09 branch of
+build.py](https://github.com/triton-inference-server/server/blob/r26.09/build.py#L73).
 
 ```
 $ mkdir build
 $ cd build
-$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=`pwd`/install -DTRITON_BUILD_ONNXRUNTIME_VERSION=1.14.1 -DTRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER_VERSION=23.04 ..
+$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=`pwd`/install -DTRITON_BUILD_ONNXRUNTIME_VERSION=1.30.0 -DTRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER=nvcr.io/nvidia/cuda-dl-base:26.09-cuda13.4-devel-ubuntu24.04 ..
 $ make install
 ```
 
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ TensorRT and OpenVino support:
 ```
 $ mkdir build
 $ cd build
-$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=`pwd`/install -DTRITON_BUILD_ONNXRUNTIME_VERSION=1.14.1 -DTRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER_VERSION=23.04 -DTRITON_ENABLE_ONNXRUNTIME_TENSORRT=ON -DTRITON_ENABLE_ONNXRUNTIME_OPENVINO=ON -DTRITON_BUILD_ONNXRUNTIME_OPENVINO_VERSION=2021.2.200 ..
+$ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=`pwd`/install -DTRITON_BUILD_ONNXRUNTIME_VERSION=1.30.0 -DTRITON_BUILD_CONTAINER=nvcr.io/nvidia/cuda-dl-base:26.09-cuda13.4-devel-ubuntu24.04 -DTRITON_ENABLE_ONNXRUNTIME_TENSORRT=ON -DTRITON_ENABLE_ONNXRUNTIME_OPENVINO=ON -DTRITON_BUILD_ONNXRUNTIME_OPENVINO_VERSION=2026.3.1 ..
 $ make install
 ```