diff --git a/docker/docker-compose-dev-essentials.yaml b/docker/docker-compose-dev-essentials.yaml
index 5388623072..15e4f91ce7 100644
--- a/docker/docker-compose-dev-essentials.yaml
+++ b/docker/docker-compose-dev-essentials.yaml
@@ -158,3 +158,9 @@ volumes:
   redis_data:
   prompt_studio_data:
   rabbitmq_data:
+
+networks:
+  default:
+    # Match docker-compose.yaml so standalone `up` uses unstract-network, not
+    # docker_default. Traefik is configured with --providers.docker.network below.
+    name: unstract-network
diff --git a/workers/tests/test_dev_essentials_compose_network.py b/workers/tests/test_dev_essentials_compose_network.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1662f569fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/workers/tests/test_dev_essentials_compose_network.py
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+"""Guard: dev essentials compose must declare unstract-network when run alone."""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pytest
+
+yaml = pytest.importorskip("yaml")
+
+REPO_ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[2]
+ESSENTIALS_COMPOSE = REPO_ROOT / "docker" / "docker-compose-dev-essentials.yaml"
+EXPECTED_NETWORK = "unstract-network"
+
+
+def test_dev_essentials_compose_declares_unstract_network():
+    doc = yaml.safe_load(ESSENTIALS_COMPOSE.read_text())
+    networks = doc.get("networks") or {}
+    default = networks.get("default") or {}
+    assert default.get("name") == EXPECTED_NETWORK
+
+
+def test_dev_essentials_traefik_targets_unstract_network():
+    doc = yaml.safe_load(ESSENTIALS_COMPOSE.read_text())
+    command = doc["services"]["reverse-proxy"]["command"]
+    if isinstance(command, list):
+        joined = " ".join(command)
+    else:
+        joined = str(command)
+    assert f"--providers.docker.network={EXPECTED_NETWORK}" in joined