diff --git a/.github/workflows/pull-request.yml b/.github/workflows/pull-request.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..68605a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/pull-request.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+name: Test Pull Request
+on:
+  pull_request:
+    branches:
+      - 'dev'
+      - 'staging'
+      - 'master'
+  workflow_dispatch:
+jobs:
+  test-pr:
+    uses: ./.github/workflows/run_tests.yml
+    secrets: inherit
diff --git a/.github/workflows/run_tests.yml b/.github/workflows/run_tests.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eef646b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/run_tests.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+name: Run tests
+on:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+  workflow_call:
+jobs:
+  test:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    env:
+      ELASTIC_PASSWORD: "changeme"
+      ELASTIC7_HOST: "localhost"
+      ELASTIC7_PORT: "9200"
+      DB_HOST: 127.0.0.1
+      AWS_REGION: ${{ secrets.AWS_REGION }}
+      GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
+      LAUNCH_DARKLY_KEY: ${{ secrets.LAUNCH_DARKLY_KEY_DEV }}
+      TEST_DATA_DUMP_FILE: ${{ vars.TEST_DATA_DUMP_FILE }}
+    services:
+      elasticsearch7:
+        image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:7.10.0
+        env:
+          discovery.type: single-node
+          ES_JAVA_OPTS: -Xms512m -Xmx512m
+          ELASTIC_PASSWORD: changeme
+          xpack.security.enabled: "false"
+          http.cors.enabled: "true"
+          http.cors.allow-origin: "*"
+        ports:
+          - 9200:9200
+      db:
+        image: mysql:8.0
+        env:
+          MYSQL_DATABASE: "rorapi"
+          MYSQL_USER: "ror_user"
+          MYSQL_PASSWORD: "password"
+          MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: "password"
+        ports:
+          - 3306:3306
+        options: --health-cmd="mysqladmin ping" --health-interval=10s --health-timeout=5s --health-retries=3
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout ror-api code
+        uses: actions/checkout@v2
+        with:
+          path: ror-api
+      - name: Set up Python environment
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v6
+        with:
+          python-version: "3.8"
+          cache: "pip"
+      - name: Install requirements
+        working-directory: ./ror-api
+        run: |
+          # python -m pip install --upgrade pip
+          pip install -r requirements.txt
+          pip install yapf
+
+          python manage.py collectstatic --noinput
+      - name: Load test data
+        working-directory: ./ror-api
+        run: |
+          python manage.py setup ${{ env.TEST_DATA_DUMP_FILE }} -t
+      - name: Run Tests
+        working-directory: ./ror-api
+        run: |
+          python manage.py test rorapi.tests.tests_unit
+          # TODO fix these tests running in GitHub Action
+          # python manage.py test rorapi.tests.tests_integration
+          # python manage.py test rorapi.tests.tests_functional
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 253e3c3..698ea39 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ services:
       interval: 10s
       timeout: 1s
     volumes:
-      - ./esdata:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data
+      - esdata:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data
   db:
     image: mysql:8.0
     volumes:
@@ -46,3 +46,5 @@ services:
       - db
 volumes:
   mysql_data:
+  esdata:
+    driver: local
diff --git a/rorapi/settings.py b/rorapi/settings.py
index 5fb4230..1ccf72e 100644
--- a/rorapi/settings.py
+++ b/rorapi/settings.py
@@ -159,14 +159,19 @@
     'BULK_SIZE': 500
 }
 
-# use AWS4Auth for AWS Elasticsearch unless running locally via docker
-if os.environ.get('ELASTIC7_HOST', 'elasticsearch7') != 'elasticsearch7':
-    http_auth = AWS4Auth(os.environ.get('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID'),
-                         os.environ.get('AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'),
-                         os.environ.get('AWS_REGION'), 'es')
+# use AWS4Auth for AWS Elasticsearch unless running locally via docker or localhost
+if os.environ.get('ELASTIC7_HOST', 'elasticsearch7') not in ['elasticsearch7', 'localhost']:
+    aws_access_key = os.environ.get('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID')
+    aws_secret_key = os.environ.get('AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY')
+    aws_region = os.environ.get('AWS_REGION')
+    if aws_access_key and aws_secret_key and aws_region:
+        http_auth = AWS4Auth(aws_access_key, aws_secret_key, aws_region, 'es')
+    else:
+        http_auth = ('elastic', os.environ.get('ELASTIC_PASSWORD', 'changeme'))
 else:
     http_auth = ('elastic', os.environ.get('ELASTIC_PASSWORD', 'changeme'))
 
+
 ES7 = Elasticsearch([{
     'host': os.environ.get('ELASTIC7_HOST', 'elasticsearch7'),
     'port': int(os.environ.get('ELASTIC7_PORT', '9200'))