diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f316d07..c8b10f2 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,4 +2,7 @@
 __pycache__/
 *.pyc
 .env
+.env.local
 trace.jsonl
+docker/mariadb/*.sql.gz
+docker/mariadb/dump_*.sql
diff --git a/tests/test_node_eras.py b/tests/test_node_eras.py
index cfccde4..74f473d 100644
--- a/tests/test_node_eras.py
+++ b/tests/test_node_eras.py
@@ -16,9 +16,15 @@ import os
 import sys
 from pathlib import Path
 
-# Load .env so DB_HOST, OPENROUTER_API_KEY etc. are set
+# Load .env then .env.local (override) so DB_HOST, OPENROUTER_API_KEY etc. are set.
+# .env.local is gitignored — use it to point at a local tenant DB:
+#   DB_HOST=localhost
+#   DB_PORT=30310   (mariadb NodePort, dev namespace)
+#   DB_PORT=30311   (mariadb-test NodePort, test namespace)
 from dotenv import load_dotenv
-load_dotenv(Path(__file__).parent.parent / ".env")
+_root = Path(__file__).parent.parent
+load_dotenv(_root / ".env")
+load_dotenv(_root / ".env.local", override=True)
 
 sys.path.insert(0, str(Path(__file__).parent.parent))