Update instructions - final

tests/conftest.py

@@ -24,6 +24,32 @@ from transcription.services.documents import DocumentService
 from transcription.services.jobs import JobService
 
 
+@pytest.fixture(autouse=True, scope="session")
+def isolate_settings_from_local_env_files(tmp_path_factory):
+    """Point `Settings` at a controlled stub env file instead of a developer one.
+
+    `Settings.model_config` declares `env_file=".env.production"`, resolved against the
+    current working directory, so a repository-root pytest run would otherwise read real
+    deployment values into tests that assert declared defaults.
+
+    The stub mirrors what `.github/workflows/quality-gate.yml` writes in CI: only
+    `OPENROUTER_API_KEY`, which is required and which many tests need `get_settings()` to
+    find. Everything else falls back to declared defaults, so local and CI runs agree. This
+    stays a file rather than a process environment variable because
+    `test_config.py::test_requires_api_key` asserts the missing-key failure via
+    `_env_file=None`. Guarded by `tests/test_config_isolation.py`.
+    """
+    stub = tmp_path_factory.mktemp("settings-env") / ".env.test"
+    stub.write_text("OPENROUTER_API_KEY=test-placeholder-not-a-real-key\n", encoding="utf-8")
+
+    original = Settings.model_config.get("env_file")
+    Settings.model_config["env_file"] = str(stub)
+    try:
+        yield
+    finally:
+        Settings.model_config["env_file"] = original
+
+
 @pytest.fixture
 def session():
     """Provide a clean synchronous database session for sync tests."""