# Github actions failing "Check SKIP\_DB\_AND\_REDIS bootability" step

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/github-actions-failing-check-skip-db-and-redis-bootability-step/404152
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [May 31, 2026, 11:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/github-actions-failing-check-skip-db-and-redis-bootability-step/404152 "2026-05-31T11:10:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
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### Author: ![elmuerte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/elmuerte/32/456517_2.png) [@elmuerte](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elmuerte)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2026, 11:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/github-actions-failing-check-skip-db-and-redis-bootability-step/404152/1 "2026-05-31T11:10:59Z")

</div>

I had an issue where the recently added “Check SKIP\_DB\_AND\_REDIS bootability” step failed for one of my plugins.

> SKIP\_DB\_AND\_REDIS boot failed. Make sure the database is not being accessed during the Rails boot process.
> 
> To reproduce locally, run `SKIP_DB_AND_REDIS=1 RAILS_DB=‘nonexistent’ bin/rails runner “puts ‘booted successfully’”`.

I tried that, but I could not reproduce the problem locally. It just passed.

I could use the stack trace of the failing github action step to nail down what code was the culprit.

> **The offending code**
>
> In one of my controllers I declared a constant which retrieved the list of attributes of an active record:
> 
> ```plaintext
> REWARD_FIELDS = Reward.attribute_names.excluding("id", "created_at", "updated_at")
> 
> ```
> 
> Which you apparently should not do.

But it would have been nicer if I could simulate this check locally, so I do not have to doe some trial an error via github actions. So there must be something else besides executing:

`SKIP_DB_AND_REDIS=1 RAILS_DB='nonexistent' bin/rails runner "puts 'booted successfully'"`

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