diff --git a/app/phpunit.xml b/app/phpunit.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2be17125d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/phpunit.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<phpunit xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+         colors="true"
+         processIsolation="false"
+         stopOnFailure="false"
+         bootstrap="tests/bootstrap.php"
+         cacheDirectory=".phpunit.cache"
+         xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="https://schema.phpunit.de/12.3/phpunit.xsd">
+    <php>
+        <ini name="memory_limit" value="-1"/>
+
+        <!-- Registry setup inputs -->
+        <env name="COMANAGE_REGISTRY_ADMIN_GIVEN_NAME" value="Admin"/>
+        <env name="COMANAGE_REGISTRY_ADMIN_FAMILY_NAME" value="User"/>
+        <env name="COMANAGE_REGISTRY_ADMIN_USERNAME" value="admin"/>
+        <env name="COMANAGE_REGISTRY_SECURITY_SALT" value="phpunit-security-salt"/>
+
+        <!-- Database inputs (used for container creation; host/port get overridden dynamically by tests/bootstrap.php) -->
+        <env name="COMANAGE_REGISTRY_DATABASE" value="registry_test"/>
+        <env name="COMANAGE_REGISTRY_DATABASE_HOST" value="127.0.0.1"/>
+        <env name="COMANAGE_REGISTRY_DATABASE_PERSISTENT" value="false"/>
+        <env name="COMANAGE_REGISTRY_DATABASE_PORT" value="0"/>
+        <env name="COMANAGE_REGISTRY_DATABASE_USER" value="test_user"/>
+        <env name="COMANAGE_REGISTRY_DATABASE_USER_PASSWORD" value="test_password"/>
+
+        <!-- Optional defaults for selecting engines/versions -->
+        <env name="DB_ENGINE" value="mysql"/>
+        <env name="MYSQL_VERSION" value="8.0"/>
+    </php>
+
+    <!-- Add any additional test suites you want to run here -->
+    <testsuites>
+        <testsuite name="app">
+            <directory>tests/TestCase/</directory>
+        </testsuite>
+        <!-- Add plugin test suites here. -->
+    </testsuites>
+
+    <!-- Load extension for fixtures -->
+    <extensions>
+        <bootstrap class="Cake\TestSuite\Fixture\Extension\PHPUnitExtension"/>
+    </extensions>
+
+    <!-- Ignore vendor tests in code coverage reports -->
+    <source>
+        <include>
+            <directory suffix=".php">src/</directory>
+            <directory suffix=".php">plugins/*/src/</directory>
+        </include>
+        <exclude>
+            <file>src/Console/Installer.php</file>
+        </exclude>
+    </source>
+</phpunit>