Add pre-test stage reset to ensure known environment state

- Add reset_stage_pre job that runs after deploy_stage but before integration tests
- Extract reset script into reusable .reset_stage_template
- Ensures stage environment is in known state even if manually modified
- Pipeline flow: deploy_stage → reset_stage_pre → integration_test_stage → reset_stage

.gitlab-ci.yml

@@ -197,20 +197,10 @@ release:
       PYTEST_SCRIPT
 
 # Integration tests for stage deployment (full suite)
-integration_test_stage:
+# Reset stage template - shared by pre and post test reset jobs
-  <<: *integration_test_template
-  needs: [deploy_stage]
-  variables:
-    ORCHARD_TEST_URL: $STAGE_URL
-  rules:
-    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main"'
-      when: on_success
-
-# Reset stage environment after integration tests (clean slate for next run)
 # Calls the /api/v1/admin/factory-reset endpoint which handles DB and S3 cleanup
-reset_stage:
+.reset_stage_template: &reset_stage_template
   stage: deploy
-  needs: [integration_test_stage]
   image: deps.global.bsf.tools/docker/python:3.12-slim
   timeout: 5m
   retry: 1  # Retry once on transient failures
@@ -284,6 +274,26 @@ reset_stage:
   rules:
     - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main"'
       when: on_success
+
+# Reset stage BEFORE integration tests (ensure known state)
+reset_stage_pre:
+  <<: *reset_stage_template
+  needs: [deploy_stage]
+
+# Integration tests for stage deployment (full suite)
+integration_test_stage:
+  <<: *integration_test_template
+  needs: [reset_stage_pre]
+  variables:
+    ORCHARD_TEST_URL: $STAGE_URL
+  rules:
+    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main"'
+      when: on_success
+
+# Reset stage AFTER integration tests (clean slate for next run)
+reset_stage:
+  <<: *reset_stage_template
+  needs: [integration_test_stage]
   allow_failure: true  # Don't fail pipeline if reset has issues
 
 # Integration tests for feature deployment (full suite)

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -6,13 +6,16 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/),
 and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 
 ## [Unreleased]
+### Changed
+- Added pre-test stage reset to ensure known environment state before integration tests (#54)
 
 ## [0.5.1] - 2026-01-23
+### Changed
+- Simplified tag pipeline to only run deploy and smoke tests (image already built on main) (#54)
 
 ### Fixed
 - Fixed production CI deployment namespace to use correct `orch-namespace` (#54)
 - Added gitleaks config to allowlist test files from secret scanning (#54)
-- Simplified tag pipeline to only run deploy and smoke tests (image already built on main) (#54)
 
 ## [0.5.0] - 2026-01-23
 ### Added