diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 9075048..663482c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -7,4 +7,5 @@ README.html
 __pycache__
 VERSION
 Dockerfile-*
-Dockerfile
\ No newline at end of file
+Dockerfile
+senpy_data
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 7999828..be9bfbe 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -7,12 +7,14 @@
 stages:
   - test
   - publish
+  - test_image
   - deploy
 
 variables:
   KUBENS: senpy
   LATEST_IMAGE: "${HUB_REPO}:${CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA}"
   SENPY_DATA: "/senpy-data/" # This is configured in the CI job
+  NLTK_DATA: "/senpy-data/nltk" # Store NLTK downloaded data
 
 docker:
   stage: publish
@@ -51,18 +53,30 @@ docker-latest:
     refs:
       - master
 
+testimage:
+  tags:
+    - docker
+  stage: test_image
+  image: "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_TAG"
+  script:
+    - python -m senpy --no-run --test
+
 testpy37:
   tags:
     - docker
+  variables:
+    SENPY_STRICT: "false"
   image: python:3.7
   stage: test
   script:
-    - pip install -r requirements.txt -r test-requirements.txt -r extra-requirements.txt
+    - pip install -r requirements.txt -r test-requirements.txt
     - python setup.py test
 
 testpy310:
   tags:
     - docker
+  variables:
+    SENPY_STRICT: "true"
   image: python:3.10
   stage: test
   script:
@@ -74,7 +88,7 @@ push_pypi:
     - tags
   tags:
     - docker
-  image: python:3.7
+  image: python:3.10
   stage: publish
   script:
     - echo $CI_COMMIT_TAG > senpy/VERSION
@@ -87,7 +101,7 @@ check_pypi:
     - tags
   tags:
     - docker
-  image: python:3.7
+  image: python:3.10
   stage: deploy
   script:
     - pip install senpy==$CI_COMMIT_TAG
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 918e059..9bc9ccf 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ Its code is pure Python, and the only limitations are imposed by its dependencie
 
 Currently, the CI/CD pipeline tests the code on:
 
-* GNU/Linux with Python versions 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7
+* GNU/Linux with Python versions 3.7+ (3.10+ recommended for all plugins)
 * MacOS and homebrew's python3
 * Windows 10 and chocolatey's python3
 
diff --git a/extra-requirements.txt b/extra-requirements.txt
index 748ccf8..79ac7ea 100644
--- a/extra-requirements.txt
+++ b/extra-requirements.txt
@@ -2,5 +2,5 @@ gsitk>0.1.9.1
 flask_cors==3.0.10
 Pattern==3.6
 lxml==4.9.3
-pandas~=2
+pandas==2.1.1
 textblob==0.17.1
diff --git a/senpy/__main__.py b/senpy/__main__.py
index 4b9e920..d063297 100644
--- a/senpy/__main__.py
+++ b/senpy/__main__.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ from flask import Flask
 from senpy.extensions import Senpy
 from senpy.utils import easy_test
 from senpy.plugins import list_dependencies
+from senpy import config
 
 import logging
 import os
@@ -95,7 +96,7 @@ def main():
     parser.add_argument(
         '--strict',
         action='store_true',
-        default=False,
+        default=config.strict,
         help='Fail if optional plugins cannot be loaded.')
     parser.add_argument(
         '--test',
diff --git a/senpy/config.py b/senpy/config.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f3a3674
--- /dev/null
+++ b/senpy/config.py
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+import os
+
+strict = os.environ.get('SENPY_STRICT', '').lower() not in ["", "false", "f"]
+data_folder = os.environ.get('SENPY_DATA', None)
+if data_folder:
+    data_folder = os.path.abspath(data_folder)
+testing = os.environ.get('SENPY_TESTING', "") != ""
diff --git a/senpy/plugins/__init__.py b/senpy/plugins/__init__.py
index dd1a3b6..d78c97a 100644
--- a/senpy/plugins/__init__.py
+++ b/senpy/plugins/__init__.py
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ from .. import models, utils
 from .. import api
 from .. import gsitk_compat
 from .. import testing
+from .. import config
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -75,7 +76,7 @@ class PluginMeta(models.BaseMeta):
         cls = super(PluginMeta, mcs).__new__(mcs, name, bases, attrs)
 
         if alias in mcs._classes:
-            if os.environ.get('SENPY_TESTING', ""):
+            if config.testing:
                 raise Exception(
                     ('The type of plugin {} already exists. '
                      'Please, choose a different name').format(name))
@@ -123,7 +124,7 @@ class Plugin(with_metaclass(PluginMeta, models.Plugin)):
             os.path.dirname(inspect.getfile(self.__class__)))
 
         if not data_folder:
-            data_folder = os.environ['SENPY_DATA']
+            data_folder = config.data_folder
         if not data_folder:
             data_folder = os.getcwd()
 
diff --git a/tests/test_plugins.py b/tests/test_plugins.py
index 6fa98b6..2760e0f 100644
--- a/tests/test_plugins.py
+++ b/tests/test_plugins.py
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ from senpy.models import Results, Entry, EmotionSet, Emotion, Plugins
 from senpy import plugins
 from senpy.plugins.postprocessing.emotion.centroids import CentroidConversion
 from senpy.gsitk_compat import GSITK_AVAILABLE
+from senpy import config
 
 import pandas as pd
 
@@ -386,7 +387,7 @@ class PluginsTest(TestCase):
 
 def make_mini_test(fpath):
     def mini_test(self):
-        for plugin in plugins.from_path(fpath, install=True):
+        for plugin in plugins.from_path(fpath, install=True, strict=config.strict):
             plugin.test()
     return mini_test