diff --git a/src/ai/backend/agent/agent.py b/src/ai/backend/agent/agent.py
index 342edefff5..9e30adc217 100644
--- a/src/ai/backend/agent/agent.py
+++ b/src/ai/backend/agent/agent.py
@@ -154,6 +154,7 @@
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from ai.backend.common.auth import PublicKey
+    from ai.backend.common.bgtask import ProgressReporter
     from ai.backend.common.etcd import AsyncEtcd
 
 log = BraceStyleAdapter(logging.getLogger(__spec__.name))  # type: ignore[name-defined]
@@ -1719,6 +1720,12 @@ async def create_kernel(
                 AutoPullBehavior(kernel_config.get("auto_pull", "digest")),
             )
             if do_pull:
+                async def _task(reporter: ProgressReporter) -> None:
+                    pass
+
+                task_id: UUID = await self.local_config["background_task_manager"].start(_task)
+                log.warning("CREATE_KERNEL background_task_manager.start(t:{})", task_id)
+
                 await self.produce_event(
                     KernelPullingEvent(kernel_id, session_id, ctx.image_ref.canonical),
                 )
diff --git a/src/ai/backend/agent/docker/agent.py b/src/ai/backend/agent/docker/agent.py
index e7c6216225..abb8b63d12 100644
--- a/src/ai/backend/agent/docker/agent.py
+++ b/src/ai/backend/agent/docker/agent.py
@@ -1270,7 +1270,54 @@ async def pull_image(self, image_ref: ImageRef, registry_conf: ImageRegistry) ->
             }
         log.info("pulling image {} from registry", image_ref.canonical)
         async with closing_async(Docker()) as docker:
-            await docker.images.pull(image_ref.canonical, auth=auth_config)
+            # await docker.images.pull(image_ref.canonical, auth=auth_config)
+            async for event in docker.images.pull(
+                image_ref.canonical, auth=auth_config, stream=True
+            ):
+                event_id = event.get("id", None)
+                event_status = event.get("status", None)
+                match event_status:
+                    case "Pulling fs layer":
+                        pass
+                    case "Waiting":
+                        pass
+                    case "Downloading":
+                        current_progress = event.get("progressDetail", {}).get("current", 0)
+                        total_progress = event.get("progressDetail", {}).get("total", 0)
+                    case "Verifying Checksum":
+                        pass
+                    case "Download complete":
+                        pass
+                    case "Extracting":
+                        current_progress = event.get("progressDetail", {}).get("current", 0)
+                        total_progress = event.get("progressDetail", {}).get("total", 0)
+                    case "Pull complete":
+                        pass
+                    case x if x.startswith("Digest: "):
+                        # Digest: sha256:26d4127a64d6afcff8c1682f351339862318fe219ea8f4cee8cb572584e8aec1
+                        pass
+                    case x if x.startswith("Status: "):
+                        # Status: Downloaded newer image for cr.backend.ai/multiarch/python:3.9-ubuntu20.04
+                        pass
+                    case _:
+                        pass
+                current_progress = event.get("progressDetail", {}).get("current", 0)
+                total_progress = event.get("progressDetail", {}).get("total", 0)
+                # log.info(
+                #     "IMAGE.PULL (image_ref:{}, registry_conf:{}) event:{}",
+                #     image_ref,
+                #     registry_conf,
+                #     event,
+                # )
+                log.info(
+                    "IMAGE.PULL (image_ref:{}) (event:{}, status:{}, progress:{}%({}/{}))",
+                    image_ref,
+                    event_id,
+                    event_status,
+                    round(current_progress / (total_progress + 1) * 100, ndigits=2),
+                    current_progress,
+                    total_progress,
+                )
 
     async def check_image(
         self, image_ref: ImageRef, image_id: str, auto_pull: AutoPullBehavior
@@ -1401,6 +1448,9 @@ async def log_iter():
                         await self.collect_logs(kernel_id, container_id, log_iter())
                 except DockerError as e:
                     if e.status == 404:
+                        # /Users/rapsealk/Desktop/git/backend.ai-dev2/src/ai/backend/agent/docker/agent.py:1451: RuntimeWarning: coroutine 'Docker._do_query' was never awaited
+                        #   log.warning(
+                        # RuntimeWarning: Enable tracemalloc to get the object allocation traceback
                         log.warning(
                             "container is already cleaned or missing (k:{}, cid:{})",
                             kernel_id,