diff --git a/tests/e2e/CONTRIBUTING.md b/tests/e2e/CONTRIBUTING.md
index be282e2a77e..106cfa31f0e 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/tests/e2e/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ A couple of logging destinations are configured on the proxy rather than by the
 
 ### The pull request check
 
-Every same-repository PR that adds, modifies, or renames a `tests/e2e/**/test_*.py` file runs those changed files three times. A change to the harness itself, meaning a root-level `tests/e2e/*.py` file or `pytest.ini`, `tests/e2e/gateway/`, `.github/e2e-stack/`, or the workflow, also runs the `access_control` suite as a canary, because those files have no test of their own that exercises the stack. `.github/e2e-stack/select_tests.py` applies both rules. The suite's own single rerun for network errors and 5xx responses (see `pytest.ini`) applies on every pass, so a transport blip does not fail the check while a race inside a test still does. The stage-mirror stack has a control-plane backend, two gateways behind nginx, Postgres, Jaeger, and TLS cluster-mode Valkey. The stack exports every gateway address in `LITELLM_PROXY_REPLICA_URLS`, so model registration waits until each gateway lists the new model rather than whichever one the load balancer answered from. Documentation, deleted-file, and application-only changes do not start the stack or request environment approval. The `ui/`, `claude_code/`, and `load/` directories and `batches/test_managed_files_enforcement_e2e.py` remain outside this check because they use separate tooling or need a differently configured stack
+Every same-repository PR that adds, modifies, or renames a `tests/e2e/**/test_*.py` file runs those changed files three times. A change to the harness itself, meaning a root-level `tests/e2e/*.py` file or `pytest.ini`, `tests/e2e/gateway/`, `.github/e2e-stack/`, or the workflow, also runs the `access_control` suite as a canary, because those files have no test of their own that exercises the stack. `.github/e2e-stack/select_tests.py` applies both rules. The stack config at `tests/e2e/gateway/stage_mirror_ci_config.yml` must declare every model the selected suites use; a missing one shows up as a failed test id in the public log. The suite's own single rerun for network errors and 5xx responses (see `pytest.ini`) applies on every pass, so a transport blip does not fail the check while a race inside a test still does. The stage-mirror stack has a control-plane backend, two gateways behind nginx, Postgres, Jaeger, and TLS cluster-mode Valkey. The stack exports every gateway address in `LITELLM_PROXY_REPLICA_URLS`, so model registration waits until each gateway lists the new model rather than whichever one the load balancer answered from. Documentation, deleted-file, and application-only changes do not start the stack or request environment approval. The `ui/`, `claude_code/`, and `load/` directories and `batches/test_managed_files_enforcement_e2e.py` remain outside this check because they use separate tooling or need a differently configured stack
 
 Every selected file must execute at least one passing test in each pass, and any test failure, collection error, or entirely skipped or deselected file fails the check. A failed pass stops the run. The public log prints pytest's one-line summary for each pass, including the rerun count, and names each failed or errored test as `classname::name`, so a retried network error or a failing test is visible without the raw output. The final `e2e-changed-tests` job succeeds only when no supported test files changed or the approved run completed all three passes. Fork PRs with selected tests fail this gate until a maintainer brings the reviewed change onto a same-repository branch
 
diff --git a/tests/e2e/gateway/stage_mirror_ci_config.yml b/tests/e2e/gateway/stage_mirror_ci_config.yml
index 6b3756b5f9f..229e8514dee 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/gateway/stage_mirror_ci_config.yml
+++ b/tests/e2e/gateway/stage_mirror_ci_config.yml
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ model_list:
     litellm_params:
       model: gemini/gemini-2.5-flash
       api_key: os.environ/GEMINI_API_KEY
+  - model_name: openai-text-embedding-3-small
+    litellm_params:
+      model: openai/text-embedding-3-small
+      api_key: os.environ/OPENAI_API_KEY
 
 mcp_servers:
   devin: