diff --git a/dockerfiles/ci-unified/Dockerfile b/dockerfiles/ci-unified/Dockerfile
index 59503e91..263bfc55 100644
--- a/dockerfiles/ci-unified/Dockerfile
+++ b/dockerfiles/ci-unified/Dockerfile
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ ARG RESTIC_VERSION="0.16.1"
 ARG RUST_STABLE_VERSION="1.75.0"
 ARG RUST_NIGHTLY_VERSION="2024-01-22"
 ARG LLVM_VERSION="15"
+ARG FORKLIFT_VERSION="latest"
 ARG MINIO_VERSION="2023-04-06T16-51-10Z"
 ARG RUSTC_RV32E_TOOLCHAIN_TAG="v1.1.0"
 ARG RUSTC_RV32E_TOOLCHAIN_VERSION="nightly-2024-01-05"
@@ -289,6 +290,16 @@ RUN wget -q https://github.com/paritytech/rustc-rv32e-toolchain/releases/downloa
     mv rve-nightly /usr/local/rustup/toolchains && \
     rm -f rust-rve-${RUSTC_RV32E_TOOLCHAIN_VERSION}-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.zst
 
+
+### forklift
+
+
+# forklift | install forklift
+COPY ci-unified/download-forklift.sh download-forklift.sh
+RUN chmod +x download-forklift.sh
+RUN bash download-forklift.sh -v ${FORKLIFT_VERSION} -p ./forklift/
+
+
 ### finalize ###
 
 
@@ -303,6 +314,7 @@ RUN rustup show && \
     cargo-contract --version
 # ink-waterfall-ci
 # substrate-contracts-node-rand-extension --version
+RUN forklift version
 
 # finalize | cargo clean up, removes compilation artifacts cargo install creates (>250M)
 RUN rm -rf "${CARGO_HOME}/registry" "${CARGO_HOME}/git" /root/.cache/sccache
diff --git a/dockerfiles/ci-unified/download-forklift.sh b/dockerfiles/ci-unified/download-forklift.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5a4e089f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dockerfiles/ci-unified/download-forklift.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+DL_PATH="$HOME/.forklift4"
+VERSION="latest"
+
+while getopts "p:v:" flag; do
+  case $flag in
+    v) # version
+    VERSION=$OPTARG
+    ;;
+    p) # download path
+    DL_PATH=$OPTARG
+    ;;
+    \?)
+    echo "invalid option '$flag'"
+    exit 1
+    ;;
+  esac
+done
+
+
+echo "Downloading forklift $VERSION to $DL_PATH"
+
+
+RELEASE_URL="https://api.github.com/repos/paritytech/forklift/releases/tags/$VERSION"
+
+if [ $VERSION="latest" ]
+ then
+  RELEASE_URL="https://api.github.com/repos/paritytech/forklift/releases/latest"
+fi
+
+
+RELEASE=`curl -s $RELEASE_URL`
+ASSET=`jq '.assets[] | select(.name | endswith("linux_amd64"))' <<< "$RELEASE"`
+
+ASSET_NAME=`jq -r '.name' <<< "$ASSET"`
+ASSET_URL=`jq -r '.browser_download_url' <<< "$ASSET"`
+
+mkdir -p $DL_PATH
+curl -s -o $DL_PATH/$ASSET_NAME -L $ASSET_URL
+cp -r $DL_PATH/$ASSET_NAME /usr/local/bin/forklift
+
+chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/forklift