diff --git a/inventory/group_vars/autocloud-backend b/inventory/group_vars/autocloud-backend
index fa5fc2557b..7dbe5de0b7 100644
--- a/inventory/group_vars/autocloud-backend
+++ b/inventory/group_vars/autocloud-backend
@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@ tcp_ports: [
 
 fas_client_groups: sysadmin-noc,sysadmin-fedimg
 
+## XXX - this is for test
+## XXX - turn this off when we're done.
+fedmsg_debug_loopback: true
+
 # These are consumed by a task in roles/fedmsg/base/main.yml
 fedmsg_certs:
 - service: shell