diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish-develop.yml b/.github/workflows/publish-develop.yml
index 26719d8..809202f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish-develop.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish-develop.yml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ name: Publish develop
 
 on:
   pull_request:
-    branches: [ main, staging ]
+    branches: [ develop, main, staging ]
   push:
     branches:
       - staging
diff --git a/.github/workflows/quality-checks.yml b/.github/workflows/quality-checks.yml
index be33950..0e0fd24 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/quality-checks.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/quality-checks.yml
@@ -42,7 +42,14 @@ jobs:
         run: uv run pytest -m api --no-cov
 
       - name: Dagster startup smoke test
-        run: uv run pytest -m integration -k test_dagster_startup --no-cov
+        env:
+          # Match dagster.yaml (env-based storage/logs); runner has no Docker .env defaults.
+          DAGSTER_HOME: ${{ github.workspace }}
+          DAGSTER_STORAGE_DIR: ${{ github.workspace }}/tmp_dagster/storage
+          DAGSTER_LOGS_DIR: ${{ github.workspace }}/tmp_dagster/logs
+        run: |
+          mkdir -p "$DAGSTER_STORAGE_DIR" "$DAGSTER_LOGS_DIR"
+          uv run pytest -m integration -k test_dagster_startup --no-cov
 
   dbt-check:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 316f343..60a6334 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -79,6 +79,9 @@ PR.md
 PR.txt
 TODO.md
 
+# CI ephemeral Dagster dirs (quality-checks sets DAGSTER_* under repo root)
+tmp_dagster/
+
 # Local
 .actrc
 .mcp.json