diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile.cpu b/docker/Dockerfile.cpu
index df0a67ec3e..ee5d5daf64 100644
--- a/docker/Dockerfile.cpu
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile.cpu
@@ -301,6 +301,12 @@ LABEL ai.vllm.build.cpu-x86="${VLLM_CPU_X86:-false}"
 LABEL ai.vllm.build.cpu-arm-bf16="${VLLM_CPU_ARM_BF16:-false}"
 LABEL ai.vllm.build.python-version="${PYTHON_VERSION:-3.12}"
 
+# Copy the examples directory (including the chat/tool templates) so it is
+# present in the released image, as the CUDA image ships it too. The vllm-test
+# stage above adds examples/ for testing only, so without this the published
+# vllm-openai-cpu image would not ship examples/*.jinja.
+COPY examples examples
+
 ENTRYPOINT ["vllm", "serve"]