diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 9a97ce6..b5774b6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -317,6 +317,12 @@ jobs:
       CONFIRM_DESTRUCTIVE_DB_NAME: capakraken_test
       REDIS_URL: redis://e2eredis:6379
       PORT: 3100
+      # test-server.mjs spawns `docker compose --profile test up postgres-test`;
+      # docker compose validates env interpolation in ALL services before
+      # applying the profile filter, so the unused pgadmin service's
+      # ${PGADMIN_PASSWORD:?} check fires and aborts the compose call.
+      # Provide a dummy value so parsing succeeds — pgadmin is never started.
+      PGADMIN_PASSWORD: ci-unused
       NEXTAUTH_URL: ${{ env.CI_AUTH_URL }}
       AUTH_URL: ${{ env.CI_AUTH_URL }}
       NEXTAUTH_SECRET: ${{ env.CI_AUTH_SECRET }}