Docker Compose "profile not enabled" in CI

By Kaveh Alemi·Latchkey

A service tagged with profiles: only starts when that profile is activated via --profile or COMPOSE_PROFILES. In CI a service tucked behind a profile is silently skipped - and any step depending on it fails because the container never came up.

What this error means

A docker compose up brings up some services but not a profiled one, and a later step fails referencing the missing service, or compose run reports it as not started.

service "integration-tests" was not started because its profile "ci" is not enabled

Common causes

The profile was not activated

A service under profiles: [ci] stays inactive unless --profile ci or COMPOSE_PROFILES=ci is set.

A typo or mismatched profile name

Activating test while the service declares tests leaves it disabled.

How to fix it

Activate the profile explicitly

1. Pass --profile (or set COMPOSE_PROFILES) for the profiles the job needs.

docker compose --profile ci up -d
# or:
COMPOSE_PROFILES=ci docker compose up -d

Align profile names

1. Make the activated profile match the name declared on the service.

services:
  integration-tests:
    profiles: ["ci"]
    image: myorg/tests:ci

How to prevent it

• Set COMPOSE_PROFILES in the CI environment for the profiles you rely on.
• Keep profile names consistent between the file and the activation flag.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• Docker documentation
• Docker build cache
• GitHub Actions documentation