codeception call to a member function connection() on null

Question

I'm trying to set up codeception to use a sqlite database during testing but i am running into the error bellow. I've tried to include bootstrap/app.php so that the application is running but that didn't fix it. Does anybody have an idea?
I'm using:

lumen v5.7.4

php v7.2.10

codeception v2.5.1

LPaymentTransactionTest.php

 public function testReturn(): void
{
    \App\DAO\Order::find(1);
}

codeception.yml

  paths:
      tests: tests
      output: tests/_output
      data: tests/_data
      support: tests/_support
      envs: tests/_envs
  actor_suffix: Tester
  extensions:
    enabled:
    - Codeception\Extension\RunFailed
  modules:
    enabled:
    - Asserts
    - \Helper\Unit
    - Db:
        dsn: 'sqlite:tests/_data/sqliteTestDb.db'
        user: ''
        password: ''
        #      dump: 'tests/_data/test.sql'
        dump: 'tests/_data/databaseDump.sql'
        populate: true
        cleanup: true

full error

Call to a member function connection() on null
 /home/projects/vendor/illuminate/database/Eloquent/Model.php:1239
 /home/projects/vendor/illuminate/database/Eloquent/Model.php:1205
 /home/projects/vendor/illuminate/database/Eloquent/Model.php:1035
 /home/projects/vendor/illuminate/database/Eloquent/Model.php:952
 /home/projects/vendor/illuminate/database/Eloquent/Model.php:988
 /home/projects/vendor/illuminate/database/Eloquent/Model.php:941
 /home/projects/vendor/illuminate/database/Eloquent/Model.php:1608
 /home/projects/vendor/illuminate/database/Eloquent/Model.php:1620
 /home/projects/tests/unit/LPaymentTransactionTest.php:96
 /tmp/ide-codeception.php:40  

edit: the model does work outside of the tests. so if i call the model through in routes/web.php it returns the data without a problem. it just doesn't seem to function within the test

edit2: looks like the application isn't being launched, will update with fix once i find it

Answer 1

actor: UnitTester
modules:
enabled:
    - Asserts
    - \Helper\Unit
    - Cli
    - Lumen
    - Db:
          dsn: 'sqlite:tests/_data/database.sqlite'
          dbname: 'tests/_data/database.sqlite'
          dump: 'tests/_data/test.sql'
          user: ''
          password: ''
          populate: true
          cleanup: false
          reconnect: true
          waitlock: 0
step_decorators: ~