diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/production-deploy.yml b/.gitea/workflows/production-deploy.yml
index e046274a..e0c5da4c 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/production-deploy.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/production-deploy.yml
@@ -20,9 +20,7 @@ jobs:
   # Job 1: Run Tests
   test:
     name: Run Tests & Quality Checks
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    # Note: if condition might not work with push events in Gitea
-    # For now, always run tests - we can add skip_tests logic later
+    runs-on: php-ci  # Uses pre-built PHP 8.5 CI image with Composer pre-installed
     steps:
       - name: Checkout code
         run: |
@@ -50,30 +48,7 @@ jobs:
           
           cd /workspace/repo
 
-      - name: Setup PHP
-        run: |
-          # Add sury.org repository for PHP 8.x
-          apt-get update
-          apt-get install -y lsb-release ca-certificates apt-transport-https software-properties-common
-          curl -sSL https://packages.sury.org/php/apt.gpg | apt-key add -
-          echo "deb https://packages.sury.org/php/ $(lsb_release -sc) main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/php.list
-          apt-get update
-          
-          # Install PHP 8.5 (matches composer.json requirement ^8.5 and Dockerfiles)
-          # Note: pcntl and sodium are built-in in PHP 8.5, no separate packages needed
-          apt-get install -y \
-            php8.5 \
-            php8.5-cli \
-            php8.5-mbstring \
-            php8.5-xml \
-            php8.5-pdo \
-            php8.5-pdo-mysql \
-            php8.5-zip \
-            php8.5-gd \
-            php8.5-intl \
-            php8.5-bcmath \
-            php8.5-redis \
-            composer
+      # PHP is already installed in php-ci image - no setup needed
 
       - name: Cache Composer dependencies (simple)
         run: |