diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
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+#
+# This file is a part of the CaosDB Project.
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2019-2021 Indiscale GmbH <info@indiscale.com>
+# Copyright (C) 2019 Henrik tom Wörden <h.tomwoerden@indiscale.com>
+# Copyright (C) 2020 Daniel Hornung <d.hornung@indiscale.com>
+# Copyright (C) 2021 Timm Fitschen <t.fitschen@indiscale.com>
+#
+# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
+# published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
+# License, or (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
+# along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+#
+
+variables:
+  CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE: $CI_REGISTRY/caosdb/src/caosdb-proto/testenv:latest
+
+image: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE
+
+stages:
+  - setup
+  - test
+
+# Build a docker image in which tests for this repository can run
+build-testenv:
+  tags: [ cached-dind ]
+  image: docker:20.10
+  stage: setup
+  script:
+    - docker login -u gitlab-ci-token -p $CI_JOB_TOKEN $CI_REGISTRY
+      # use here general latest or specific branch latest...
+    - docker pull $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE|| true
+    - docker build 
+      -f .docker/Dockerfile
+      --pull
+      --cache-from $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE
+      -t $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE .
+    - docker push $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE
+
+# formatting with clang-format
+code_style:
+  tags: [ docker ]
+  stage: test
+  script:
+    - clang-format-11 --dry-run --verbose $(find . -type f -iname "*.proto") 
+  allow_failure: true
+
+# buf linting
+linting:
+  tags: [ docker ]
+  stage: test
+  script:
+    - buf lint