diff --git a/.envs/.ci/.django b/.envs/.ci/.django
index 7bddb5de7..0cb142331 100644
--- a/.envs/.ci/.django
+++ b/.envs/.ci/.django
@@ -1,10 +1,14 @@
 # General
-# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-USE_DOCKER=yes
 DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE="config.settings.local"
+USE_DOCKER=yes
+
+# RabbitMQ
+CELERY_BROKER_URL=amqp://rabbituser:rabbitpass@rabbitmq:5672/
+CELERY_RESULT_BACKEND=rpc:// # Use RabbitMQ for results backend
+RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER=rabbituser
+RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS=rabbitpass
 
 # Redis
-# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379/0
 
 DJANGO_CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS=http://localhost:3000,http://localhost:4000
@@ -17,19 +21,11 @@ MINIO_STORAGE_USE_HTTPS=False
 MINIO_TEST_BUCKET=ami-test-ci
 MINIO_BROWSER_REDIRECT_URL=http://minio:9001
 
+# NATS
+NATS_URL=nats://nats:4222
+
 DEFAULT_PROCESSING_SERVICE_NAME=Test Processing Service
 DEFAULT_PROCESSING_SERVICE_ENDPOINT=http://ml_backend:2000
 
-# RabbitMQ
-# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-CELERY_BROKER_URL=amqp://rabbituser:rabbitpass@rabbitmq:5672/
-CELERY_RESULT_BACKEND=rpc:// # Use RabbitMQ for results backend
-RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER=rabbituser
-RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS=rabbitpass
-
 # Email backend to use.
 DJANGO_EMAIL_BACKEND=django.core.mail.backends.locmem.EmailBackend
-
-# NATS
-# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-NATS_URL=nats://nats:4222
diff --git a/.envs/.local/.django b/.envs/.local/.django
index f0fdc3b2d..26ec76fd2 100644
--- a/.envs/.local/.django
+++ b/.envs/.local/.django
@@ -9,12 +9,17 @@ IPYTHONDIR=/app/.ipython
 DJANGO_SUPERUSER_EMAIL=antenna@insectai.org
 DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD=localadmin
 
+# RabbitMQ
+CELERY_BROKER_URL=amqp://rabbituser:rabbitpass@rabbitmq:5672/
+CELERY_RESULT_BACKEND=rpc:// # Use RabbitMQ for results backend
+RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER=rabbituser
+RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS=rabbitpass
+RABBITMQ_SERVER_ADDITIONAL_ERL_ARGS=-rabbit consumer_timeout 604800000
+
+
 # Redis
 REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379/0
 
-# NATS
-NATS_URL=nats://nats:4222
-
 # Upload size limit (integer, binary MiB — multiplied by 1024*1024). 100 MiB default
 # is fine for local dev. Raise only if testing large ML result payloads locally.
 # DJANGO_DATA_UPLOAD_MAX_MEMORY_MB=100
@@ -28,13 +33,6 @@ CELERY_FLOWER_PASSWORD=BEQgmCtgyrFieKNoGTsux9YIye0I7P5Q7vEgfJD2C4jxmtHDetFaE2jhS
 # each prefork worker is a separate Python process with its own DB connection.
 # CELERY_WORKER_CONCURRENCY=4
 
-# RabbitMQ
-CELERY_BROKER_URL=amqp://rabbituser:rabbitpass@rabbitmq:5672/
-CELERY_RESULT_BACKEND=rpc:// # Use RabbitMQ for results backend
-RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER=rabbituser
-RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS=rabbitpass
-RABBITMQ_SERVER_ADDITIONAL_ERL_ARGS=-rabbit consumer_timeout 604800000
-
 # Email backend to use.
 DJANGO_EMAIL_BACKEND=django.core.mail.backends.console.EmailBackend
 
@@ -60,6 +58,9 @@ MINIO_STORAGE_USE_HTTPS=False
 MINIO_TEST_BUCKET=ami-test
 MINIO_BROWSER_REDIRECT_URL=http://minio:9001
 
+# NATS
+NATS_URL=nats://nats:4222
+
 # Default processing service (local)
 DEFAULT_PROCESSING_SERVICE_NAME=Local Processing Service
 DEFAULT_PROCESSING_SERVICE_ENDPOINT=http://ml_backend:2000
diff --git a/docker-compose.ci.yml b/docker-compose.ci.yml
index 4caa357f3..e0913da12 100644
--- a/docker-compose.ci.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.ci.yml
@@ -12,8 +12,6 @@ services:
     build:
       context: .
       dockerfile: ./compose/local/django/Dockerfile
-    volumes:
-      - .:/app:z
     extra_hosts:
       - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway"
     depends_on:
@@ -21,6 +19,8 @@ services:
         condition: service_started
       redis:
         condition: service_started
+      nats:
+        condition: service_started
       # Wait for bucket setup to succeed so a failure stops the job here, not in later tests.
       minio-init:
         condition: service_completed_successfully
@@ -28,8 +28,8 @@ services:
         condition: service_started
       rabbitmq:
         condition: service_started
-      nats:
-        condition: service_started
+    volumes:
+      - .:/app:z
     env_file:
       - ./.envs/.ci/.django
       - ./.envs/.ci/.postgres
@@ -60,9 +60,9 @@ services:
 
   celeryworker:
     <<: *django
+    command: /start-celeryworker
     depends_on:
       - rabbitmq
-    command: /start-celeryworker
 
   rabbitmq:
     image: rabbitmq:3-management