diff --git a/.changes/unreleased/Under the Hood-20230814-225729.yaml b/.changes/unreleased/Under the Hood-20230814-225729.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3d38d10249
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changes/unreleased/Under the Hood-20230814-225729.yaml	
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+kind: Under the Hood
+body: Make duckdb the standard for all dev-env environment runs, including `make test`
+time: 2023-08-14T22:57:29.775028-07:00
+custom:
+  Author: tlento
+  Issue: "723"
diff --git a/metricflow/test/fixtures/setup_fixtures.py b/metricflow/test/fixtures/setup_fixtures.py
index fa16c62ab8..9dd234050e 100644
--- a/metricflow/test/fixtures/setup_fixtures.py
+++ b/metricflow/test/fixtures/setup_fixtures.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 import datetime
 import logging
+import os
 import warnings
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 
@@ -68,24 +69,18 @@ def pytest_addoption(parser: _pytest.config.argparsing.Parser) -> None:
     )
 
 
-class MetricFlowTestEnvironmentVariables:
-    """Environment variables to setup the testing environment."""
-
-    MF_SQL_ENGINE_URL = EnvironmentVariable("MF_SQL_ENGINE_URL")
-    MF_SQL_ENGINE_PASSWORD = EnvironmentVariable("MF_SQL_ENGINE_PASSWORD")
-
-
 @pytest.fixture(scope="session")
 def mf_test_session_state(  # noqa: D
     request: FixtureRequest,
     disable_sql_alchemy_deprecation_warning: None,
     source_table_snapshot_repository: SqlTableSnapshotRepository,
 ) -> MetricFlowTestSessionState:
-    engine_url = MetricFlowTestEnvironmentVariables.MF_SQL_ENGINE_URL.get_optional()
-    if engine_url is None:
-        logger.info(f"{MetricFlowTestEnvironmentVariables.MF_SQL_ENGINE_URL.name} has not been set, so using DuckDb")
-        engine_url = "duckdb://"
-    engine_password = MetricFlowTestEnvironmentVariables.MF_SQL_ENGINE_PASSWORD.get_optional() or ""
+    engine_url = os.environ.get("MF_SQL_ENGINE_URL")
+    assert engine_url is not None, (
+        "MF_SQL_ENGINE_URL environment variable has not been set! Are you running in a properly configured "
+        "environment? Check out our CONTRIBUTING.md for pointers to our environment configurations."
+    )
+    engine_password = os.environ.get("MF_SQL_ENGINE_PASSWORD", "")
 
     current_time = datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y_%m_%d")
     random_suffix = random_id()
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index c11e6a9679..e0b43b1ef4 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -118,6 +118,7 @@ features = [
 
 [tool.hatch.envs.dev-env.env-vars]
 	MF_TEST_ADAPTER_TYPE="duckdb"
+  MF_SQL_ENGINE_URL="duckdb://"
 
 [tool.hatch.envs.postgres-env.env-vars]
 	MF_SQL_ENGINE_URL="postgresql://metricflow@localhost:5432/metricflow"