diff --git a/packages/server/.env b/packages/server/.env
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d7a7be550407b6f65dd475a083dd5d62f6268420
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/server/.env
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+# DO NOT USE
+#
+# @prisma/client for some reason will load .env whenever it's imported
+# which makes tests impossible to do while this file exists
+# every environment variable used in development should be placed in .env.local
+#
+# https://github.com/prisma/prisma/issues/15620
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/packages/server/.gitignore b/packages/server/.gitignore
index 11ddd8dbe662a68e189c3a66ab6fc2df45c555bb..5c7b024c1774d5d1ed0bb716174ecd71a77897dc 100644
--- a/packages/server/.gitignore
+++ b/packages/server/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 node_modules
-# Keep environment variables out of version control
-.env
+# .env is not actually used
+# this file is included as a warning
+-.env