Pin the service image used by integration tests

A floating database tag changes test behavior and download work outside your commit.

Prompt

Evaluate and apply this CI technique to my repository: Pin the service image used by integration tests.

A floating database tag changes test behavior and download work outside your commit.

Read the technique and its source-backed company examples: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/image-pins.md

Inspect this repository’s CI workflows, build and test commands, dependencies, and recent run timings. Identify where this technique applies and explain the expected benefit using this repository’s evidence.
Measure a baseline from recent comparable runs: elapsed time, queue time, runner minutes and failures where available. If data is unavailable, say what cannot be measured.
Compare relevant company approaches, checking prerequisites, platform differences and tradeoffs. Rank applicable options by evidence, fit and measurable opportunity; do not present company results as predictions for this repo.
Recommend the smallest safe change, show what checks and fallback paths remain, and ASK ME WHICH CHANGE TO APPROVE BEFORE EDITING ANY FILES.
Only after approval, work on a new feature branch, make one reversible change, and open a reviewable pull request. Never merge or push to a default or protected branch.
Keep required checks, test coverage, deployment and release behavior intact. Validate the change and compare equivalent runs where possible; report limitations and what should be monitored after merge.

View all playbooks

How Mastra used this technique

Read what Mastra changed and follow the original sources.

Pin the service image used by integration tests

MSSQL and ClickHouse changed floating tags to explicit versions; Chroma did the same. Pinning makes the tested service version deliberate.

ClickHouse is pinned to 26.6.1.1193 on main. Source

Chroma is pinned to 1.5.9 on main. Source

Use it when: Integration tests pull latest or rolling service tags.
Before applying it: A pin needs a refresh policy and supported-version coverage.

How Mastra used this technique

Pin the service image used by integration tests

Company Playbooks

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