diff --git a/libs/doctrine-retry-bundle/README.md b/libs/doctrine-retry-bundle/README.md
index 26cbfa8eb..dee0a91c0 100644
--- a/libs/doctrine-retry-bundle/README.md
+++ b/libs/doctrine-retry-bundle/README.md
@@ -16,6 +16,19 @@ doctrine:
 ```            
             
 ## Environment
+The tests connect to MySQL through a [Toxiproxy](https://github.com/Shopify/toxiproxy) instance
+(used to simulate connection failures). Both are provided by the `dev-doctrine-retry-bundle`
+Docker Compose service, so the simplest way to run them is:
+```bash
+docker compose run --rm dev-doctrine-retry-bundle composer ci
+```
+
+The following variables are required:
 ```
-TEST_DATABASE_URL - database connection URL (mysql://user:secret@localhost/mydb)
+TEST_DATABASE_HOST     - MySQL host (e.g. mysql)
+TEST_DATABASE_PORT     - MySQL port (e.g. 3306)
+TEST_DATABASE_USER     - MySQL user (e.g. root)
+TEST_DATABASE_PASSWORD - MySQL password
+TEST_DATABASE_DB       - MySQL database name (e.g. testdatabase)
+TEST_PROXY_HOST        - Toxiproxy host (e.g. toxiproxy); its API is reached at http://<host>:8474
 ```
diff --git a/libs/doctrine-retry-bundle/composer.json b/libs/doctrine-retry-bundle/composer.json
index aa913dad7..de98133dc 100644
--- a/libs/doctrine-retry-bundle/composer.json
+++ b/libs/doctrine-retry-bundle/composer.json
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@
         "monolog/monolog": "^3.9",
         "phpstan/phpstan": "^2.1",
         "phpstan/phpstan-phpunit": "^2.0",
-        "phpunit/phpunit": "^12.1"
+        "phpunit/phpunit": "^12.1",
+        "symfony/dotenv": "^6.0|^7.0"
     },
     "autoload": {
         "psr-4": {
diff --git a/libs/doctrine-retry-bundle/tests/bootstrap.php b/libs/doctrine-retry-bundle/tests/bootstrap.php
index a075e1e88..1949c8aeb 100644
--- a/libs/doctrine-retry-bundle/tests/bootstrap.php
+++ b/libs/doctrine-retry-bundle/tests/bootstrap.php
@@ -2,4 +2,24 @@
 
 declare(strict_types=1);
 
-require_once __DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php';
+use Symfony\Component\Dotenv\Dotenv;
+
+require __DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php';
+
+if (file_exists(dirname(__DIR__).'/.env.local')) {
+    (new Dotenv())->usePutenv()->bootEnv(dirname(__DIR__).'/.env.local', 'dev', []);
+}
+
+$requiredEnvs = [
+    'TEST_DATABASE_HOST',
+    'TEST_DATABASE_PORT',
+    'TEST_DATABASE_USER',
+    'TEST_DATABASE_PASSWORD',
+    'TEST_DATABASE_DB',
+    'TEST_PROXY_HOST',
+];
+foreach ($requiredEnvs as $env) {
+    if (empty(getenv($env))) {
+        throw new Exception(sprintf('Environment variable "%s" is empty', $env));
+    }
+}