diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 6e2a980..e3f10d2 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -64,5 +64,15 @@ jobs:
           done < <(find scripts -type f -name '*.sh' -print0)
       - name: Validate Compose
         run: docker compose --env-file .env.example config >/dev/null
+      - name: VPS-equivalent isolated API preflight
+        run: |
+          set -Eeuo pipefail
+          image="dhv2-api:ci-vps-preflight-${GITHUB_SHA::12}"
+          docker build --target builder -t "$image" api-v3
+          docker run --rm \
+            -v "$PWD/api-v3/test:/app/test:ro" \
+            -v "$PWD/api-v3/tsconfig.test.json:/app/tsconfig.test.json:ro" \
+            "$image" npm test
+          docker image rm "$image" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
       - name: Build production images
         run: docker compose --env-file .env.example build api migrate web