diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..51416b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,125 @@
+name: CI
+
+on:
+  push:
+  pull_request:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
+jobs:
+  smoke:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+
+    services:
+      mongodb:
+        image: mongo:latest
+        options: >-
+          --health-cmd mongosh
+          --health-interval 10s
+          --health-timeout 5s
+          --health-retries 5
+        ports:
+          - 27017:27017
+        env:
+          MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_USERNAME: admin
+          MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_PASSWORD: mongodb
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
+      - name: Set up Python
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        with:
+          python-version: "3.12"
+
+      - name: Set up Node
+        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
+        with:
+          node-version: "20"
+
+      - name: Repo smoke checks
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+
+          echo "Validating repository structure and basic runnable signals"
+
+          has_signal=0
+
+          if find . -maxdepth 4 -type f -name "package.json" | grep -q .; then
+            has_signal=1
+            while IFS= read -r pkg; do
+              [ -z "$pkg" ] && continue
+              node -e "const fs=require('fs'); JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(process.argv[1],'utf8'));" "$pkg"
+            done < <(find . -maxdepth 4 -type f -name "package.json")
+          fi
+
+          if find . -maxdepth 4 -type f \( -name "pyproject.toml" -o -name "requirements.txt" -o -name "setup.py" -o -name "manage.py" \) | grep -q .; then
+            has_signal=1
+          fi
+
+          if find . -maxdepth 4 -type f \( -name "app.py" -o -name "main.py" -o -name "wsgi.py" -o -name "asgi.py" \) | grep -q .; then
+            has_signal=1
+          fi
+
+          if find . -maxdepth 4 -type f \( -name "pom.xml" -o -name "build.gradle" -o -name "build.gradle.kts" -o -name "gradlew" \) | grep -q .; then
+            has_signal=1
+          fi
+
+          if find . -maxdepth 4 -type f -name "go.mod" | grep -q .; then
+            has_signal=1
+          fi
+
+          if find . -maxdepth 4 -type f -name "Cargo.toml" | grep -q .; then
+            has_signal=1
+          fi
+
+          if find . -maxdepth 4 -type f \( -name "*.csproj" -o -name "*.sln" \) | grep -q .; then
+            has_signal=1
+          fi
+
+          if find . -maxdepth 4 -type f \( -name "Dockerfile" -o -name "docker-compose.yml" -o -name "docker-compose.yaml" \) | grep -q .; then
+            has_signal=1
+          fi
+
+          if find . -maxdepth 4 -type f -name "Makefile" | grep -q .; then
+            has_signal=1
+          fi
+
+          if [ "$has_signal" -ne 1 ]; then
+            echo "No runnable/build signals found in repository"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
+          echo "Running Python syntax smoke check"
+          python_files="$(find . -type f -name '*.py' -not -path './.git/*' 2>/dev/null || true)"
+          if [ -n "$python_files" ]; then
+            while IFS= read -r f; do
+              [ -z "$f" ] && continue
+              python -m py_compile "$f"
+            done <<< "$python_files"
+          fi
+
+          echo "Smoke checks passed"
+
+      - name: Install runtime test dependencies
+        run: pip install Pillow fastapi pymongo pydantic uvicorn
+
+      - name: Run repository runtime smoke test
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          if [ -f tests/test_runtime.py ]; then
+            python tests/test_runtime.py
+          else
+            echo "No runtime smoke test file found"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
+      - name: Install integration test dependencies
+        run: pip install pytest pymongo
+
+      - name: Run integration tests
+        env:
+          MONGODB_URI: mongodb://admin:mongodb@localhost:27017/
+        run: pytest tests/test_integration.py -v
diff --git a/backend/requirements.ini b/backend/requirements.ini
index 9a1f996..1915940 100644
--- a/backend/requirements.ini
+++ b/backend/requirements.ini
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 fastapi[all]
-motor[srv]
+pymongo[srv]
 boto3
 #aiobotocore
 pillow
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/backend/requirements.txt b/backend/requirements.txt
index c57c49a..c0b405a 100644
--- a/backend/requirements.txt
+++ b/backend/requirements.txt
@@ -56,8 +56,6 @@ jmespath==1.0.1
     #   botocore
 markupsafe==2.1.5
     # via jinja2
-motor==3.4.0
-    # via -r requirements.ini
 orjson==3.10.2
     # via fastapi
 pillow==10.3.0
@@ -73,8 +71,8 @@ pydantic-extra-types==2.7.0
     # via fastapi
 pydantic-settings==2.2.1
     # via fastapi
-pymongo==4.7.1
-    # via motor
+pymongo==4.13.1
+    # via -r requirements.ini
 python-dateutil==2.9.0.post0
     # via botocore
 python-dotenv==1.0.1
diff --git a/tests/__init__.py b/tests/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/tests/test_integration.py b/tests/test_integration.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..798c583
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_integration.py
@@ -0,0 +1,172 @@
+"""Integration tests for celeb-matcher-farm.
+
+Tests real MongoDB CRUD operations for the attendee/celeb_images collection
+used by the FastAPI + AWS Bedrock celebrity matching backend.
+
+Requires a running MongoDB instance. Set MONGODB_URI (default:
+mongodb://admin:mongodb@localhost:27017/) or the tests will be skipped.
+"""
+
+import os
+import base64
+import pytest
+from pymongo import MongoClient
+from bson import ObjectId
+
+MONGODB_URI = os.environ.get("MONGODB_URI", "mongodb://admin:mongodb@localhost:27017/")
+TEST_DB = "celeb_matcher_integration_test"
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(scope="module")
+def db():
+    client = MongoClient(MONGODB_URI, serverSelectionTimeoutMS=2000)
+    try:
+        client.admin.command("ping")
+    except Exception:
+        client.close()
+        pytest.skip(f"MongoDB not reachable at {MONGODB_URI}")
+    database = client[TEST_DB]
+    yield database
+    client.drop_database(TEST_DB)
+    client.close()
+
+
+def test_mongodb_ping():
+    client = MongoClient(MONGODB_URI, serverSelectionTimeoutMS=2000)
+    try:
+        result = client.admin.command("ping")
+        assert result.get("ok") == 1.0
+    except Exception:
+        pytest.skip(f"MongoDB not reachable at {MONGODB_URI}")
+    finally:
+        client.close()
+
+
+def test_attendee_record_crud(db):
+    """celeb_images collection: insert, find, update, delete an attendee."""
+    celeb_images = db["celeb_images"]
+
+    # Create a fake embedding (1024 floats simulating Bedrock output)
+    embedding = [0.01 * i for i in range(1024)]
+
+    doc_id = ObjectId()
+    record = {
+        "_id": doc_id,
+        "name": "Test Attendee",
+        "email": "attendee@example.com",
+        "embedding": embedding,
+        "image_b64": base64.b64encode(b"fake-image-bytes").decode(),
+    }
+
+    # Create
+    result = celeb_images.insert_one(record)
+    assert result.inserted_id == doc_id
+
+    # Read
+    found = celeb_images.find_one({"_id": doc_id})
+    assert found["name"] == "Test Attendee"
+    assert len(found["embedding"]) == 1024
+
+    # Update
+    celeb_images.update_one({"_id": doc_id}, {"$set": {"name": "Updated Attendee"}})
+    updated = celeb_images.find_one({"_id": doc_id})
+    assert updated["name"] == "Updated Attendee"
+
+    # Delete
+    delete_result = celeb_images.delete_one({"_id": doc_id})
+    assert delete_result.deleted_count == 1
+    assert celeb_images.find_one({"_id": doc_id}) is None
+
+
+def test_query_attendees_by_email(db):
+    """celeb_images collection: find by email field."""
+    celeb_images = db["celeb_images"]
+
+    ids = [ObjectId(), ObjectId()]
+    docs = [
+        {
+            "_id": ids[0],
+            "name": "Alice",
+            "email": "alice@conference.example",
+            "embedding": [0.1] * 1024,
+        },
+        {
+            "_id": ids[1],
+            "name": "Bob",
+            "email": "bob@conference.example",
+            "embedding": [0.2] * 1024,
+        },
+    ]
+    celeb_images.insert_many(docs)
+
+    found = celeb_images.find_one({"email": "alice@conference.example", "_id": {"$in": ids}})
+    assert found is not None
+    assert found["name"] == "Alice"
+
+    # Cleanup
+    celeb_images.delete_many({"_id": {"$in": ids}})
+
+
+def test_vector_search_index_structure(db):
+    """celeb_images: verify documents have the embedding field needed for vector search."""
+    celeb_images = db["celeb_images"]
+
+    doc_id = ObjectId()
+    celeb_images.insert_one({
+        "_id": doc_id,
+        "name": "Carol",
+        "embedding": [float(i) / 1024 for i in range(1024)],
+    })
+
+    found = celeb_images.find_one({"_id": doc_id})
+    assert "embedding" in found
+    assert isinstance(found["embedding"], list)
+    assert len(found["embedding"]) == 1024
+    # All values should be valid floats
+    assert all(isinstance(v, float) for v in found["embedding"])
+
+    celeb_images.delete_one({"_id": doc_id})
+
+
+def test_standardize_image_function():
+    """standardize_image() produces a valid base64-encoded JPEG string."""
+    try:
+        import sys
+        from pathlib import Path
+        import importlib.util
+        import types
+
+        backend_src = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / "backend" / "src"
+
+        # Stub boto3 and AWS dependencies
+        for mod_name in ("boto3", "uvicorn"):
+            if mod_name not in sys.modules:
+                stub = types.ModuleType(mod_name)
+                sys.modules[mod_name] = stub
+
+        os.environ.setdefault("MONGODB_URI", MONGODB_URI)
+        os.environ.setdefault("AWS_ACCESS_KEY", "test")
+        os.environ.setdefault("AWS_SECRET_KEY", "test")
+
+        spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location(
+            "celeb_server_int", backend_src / "server.py"
+        )
+        mod = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
+        spec.loader.exec_module(mod)
+
+        # Create a minimal 2x2 JPEG image
+        from PIL import Image
+        import io
+        img = Image.new("RGB", (2, 2), color=(255, 0, 0))
+        buf = io.BytesIO()
+        img.save(buf, format="JPEG")
+        buf.seek(0)
+        input_b64 = base64.b64encode(buf.getvalue()).decode()
+
+        result_b64 = mod.standardize_image(input_b64)
+        decoded = base64.b64decode(result_b64)
+        out_img = Image.open(io.BytesIO(decoded))
+        assert out_img.size == (512, 512)
+        assert out_img.mode == "RGB"
+    except Exception as exc:
+        pytest.skip(f"standardize_image test skipped: {exc}")
diff --git a/tests/test_runtime.py b/tests/test_runtime.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f9fa058
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_runtime.py
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+import base64
+import importlib.util
+import io
+import os
+import sys
+import types
+import unittest
+from pathlib import Path
+
+from PIL import Image
+
+
+class RuntimeTest(unittest.TestCase):
+    @classmethod
+    def setUpClass(cls):
+        os.environ.setdefault("MONGODB_URI", "mongodb://example/test")
+        os.environ.setdefault("AWS_ACCESS_KEY", "x")
+        os.environ.setdefault("AWS_SECRET_KEY", "y")
+
+        if "boto3" not in sys.modules:
+            boto3 = types.ModuleType("boto3")
+            boto3.client = lambda *args, **kwargs: object()
+            sys.modules["boto3"] = boto3
+
+        target = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / "backend" / "src" / "server.py"
+        spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location("celeb_server", target)
+        cls.mod = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
+        spec.loader.exec_module(cls.mod)
+
+    def test_standardize_image_and_payload(self):
+        img = Image.new("RGB", (2, 2), color=(255, 0, 0))
+        buff = io.BytesIO()
+        img.save(buff, format="JPEG")
+        b64 = base64.b64encode(buff.getvalue()).decode("utf-8")
+
+        out = self.mod.standardize_image(b64)
+        self.assertIsInstance(out, str)
+        decoded = base64.b64decode(out)
+        self.assertGreater(len(decoded), 0)
+
+        payload = self.mod.SearchPayload(img="data:image/jpeg;base64," + b64, compareWithOtherAttendees=False)
+        self.assertFalse(payload.compareWithOtherAttendees)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    unittest.main()