diff --git a/spacy/tests/conftest.py b/spacy/tests/conftest.py
index c6be15189..ec0cb8696 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/conftest.py
@@ -3,7 +3,13 @@ from spacy.util import get_lang_class
 
 
 def pytest_addoption(parser):
-    parser.addoption("--slow", action="store_true", help="include slow tests")
+    try:
+        parser.addoption("--slow", action="store_true", help="include slow tests")
+        parser.addoption("--issue", action="store", help="test specific issues")
+    # Options are already added, e.g. if conftest is copied in a build pipeline
+    # and runs twice
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
 
 
 def pytest_runtest_setup(item):