diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/test-backend.yml b/.gitea/workflows/test-backend.yml
index 43d8ef1..55854a9 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/test-backend.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/test-backend.yml
@@ -16,14 +16,6 @@ concurrency:
   group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
   cancel-in-progress: true
 
-env:
-  # The compose files live in docker/, so a bare `docker compose` from the repo
-  # root finds nothing. With COMPOSE_FILE set, compose reads .env from the
-  # working directory — the same file the backend settings load as ../.env.
-  # compose.ci.yml drops the fixed container_names and the fixed 5432 — both
-  # daemon-global, so without it a second run on the same host cannot start.
-  COMPOSE_FILE: docker/compose.yml:docker/compose.dev.yml:docker/compose.ci.yml
-
 jobs:
   test-backend:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
@@ -34,10 +26,6 @@ jobs:
       matrix:
         python-version: ["3.12", "3.14"]
     env:
-      # Per run, so the `down -v` steps reach neither a dev stack nor a run
-      # still going. Unique names cannot be recycled, hence the always-on
-      # teardown below.
-      COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME: fluksio-app-ci-backend-${{ github.run_id }}
       # uv would otherwise take a managed interpreter it already has over the
       # one set up below.
       UV_PYTHON: ${{ matrix.python-version }}