diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 1e097d5..395c32b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -14,6 +14,18 @@ jobs:
     # Recommended for PyPI Trusted Publishing — configure a "pypi" environment +
     # a trusted publisher on PyPI (repo BabelQueue/babelqueue-python, this workflow).
     environment: pypi
+    # redis_layout (conformance 1.6.0) drives the real Lua scripts: a real redis:7 is mandatory,
+    # exactly as in ci.yml's `conformance` job — without it the cases are reported as failures.
+    services:
+      redis:
+        image: redis:7
+        ports:
+          - 6379:6379
+        options: >-
+          --health-cmd "redis-cli ping"
+          --health-interval 5s
+          --health-timeout 3s
+          --health-retries 10
     env:
       # The pinned conformance release (ADR-0032). Keep identical to ci.yml.
       BQ_CONFORMANCE_VERSION: 1.6.0
@@ -40,9 +52,12 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install & test (writes results.json)
         env:
           BQ_CONFORMANCE_RESULTS: ${{ runner.temp }}/results.json
+          # A real redis:7 is mandatory: no silent skip or fakeredis fallback (shared runner contract).
+          BQ_REQUIRE_REDIS: "1"
+          BABELQUEUE_TEST_REDIS: redis://localhost:6379/0
         run: |
           python -m pip install --upgrade pip build
-          pip install -e ".[dev,celery,django,otel]" opentelemetry-sdk jsonschema
+          pip install -e ".[dev,celery,django,otel,redis]" opentelemetry-sdk jsonschema
           pytest
           test -s "$BQ_CONFORMANCE_RESULTS"  # the conformance run must have produced results.json