diff --git a/src/frontend/apiserver/middleware/load_test.go b/src/frontend/apiserver/middleware/load_test.go
index c43f08ee..16ba8412 100644
--- a/src/frontend/apiserver/middleware/load_test.go
+++ b/src/frontend/apiserver/middleware/load_test.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"net/http"
+	"os"
 	"sync"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
@@ -21,8 +22,8 @@ type AuthResponse struct {
 }
 
 // login
-func login(username, password string) (string, error) {
-	const loginURL = "http://localhost:8080/xce/v1/auth/logon" //replace with your login url
+func login(baseURL, username, password string) (string, error) {
+	loginURL := baseURL + "/xce/v1/auth/logon"
 
 	// create login request json data
 	loginData := map[string]string{
@@ -61,13 +62,20 @@ func login(username, password string) (string, error) {
 }
 
 // TestLoadJobs test function
+// TestLoadJobs is a manual load test against a running API server; it is
+// skipped unless XCE_LOAD_TEST_URL (e.g. http://localhost:8080) is set, with
+// the credentials in XCE_LOAD_TEST_USER / XCE_LOAD_TEST_PASSWORD.
 func TestLoadJobs(t *testing.T) {
+	baseURL := os.Getenv("XCE_LOAD_TEST_URL")
+	if baseURL == "" {
+		t.Skip("load test: set XCE_LOAD_TEST_URL (and XCE_LOAD_TEST_USER/XCE_LOAD_TEST_PASSWORD) to run it against a live API server")
+	}
 	const numRequests = 100
-	const username = "user01"       // replace with your username
-	const password = "Welcome@1212" // replace with your password
+	username := os.Getenv("XCE_LOAD_TEST_USER")
+	password := os.Getenv("XCE_LOAD_TEST_PASSWORD")
 	fmt.Println("before login")
 	// login to get token
-	token, err := login(username, password)
+	token, err := login(baseURL, username, password)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("Failed to log in: %v", err)
 	}
@@ -81,7 +89,7 @@ func TestLoadJobs(t *testing.T) {
 	for i := 0; i < numRequests; i++ {
 		go func() {
 			defer wg.Done()
-			req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", "http://localhost:8080/xce/v1/jobs", nil) // replace with your actual url
+			req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", baseURL+"/xce/v1/jobs", nil)
 			if err != nil {
 				t.Error("Error creating request:", err)
 				return