diff --git a/services/nginx/app/tests/Unit/Tooling/RunCiSuiteTest.php b/services/nginx/app/tests/Unit/Tooling/RunCiSuiteTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..155e8a75
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/nginx/app/tests/Unit/Tooling/RunCiSuiteTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+it('fails CI API runs instead of allowing runtime bootstrap skips to pass', function (): void {
+    $runner = (string)file_get_contents(__DIR__ . '/../../Support/run_ci_suite.php');
+
+    expect($runner)->toContain('API_TEST_FAIL_ON_SKIP=1')
+        ->and($runner)->toContain("assert_required_php_extensions(['mysqli'])");
+});