diff --git a/config/local/local b/config/local/local
index a8f5a43..a31e3f5 100644
--- a/config/local/local
+++ b/config/local/local
@@ -4,3 +4,6 @@
 export domain='test123.home'
 export url='http://test123.home'
 
+# set to anything other than the empty string to set up a dev environment
+export dev_env='true'
+