diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index f27f049..7bb7272 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -14,3 +14,5 @@ script:
 - cd ..
 - git clone git://git.baserock.org/baserock/baserock/definitions
 - cd definitions
+- export YBD_mode=keys-only
+- ../ybd/ybd.py ci x86_64
diff --git a/ybd/app.py b/ybd/app.py
index f70d498..945e521 100644
--- a/ybd/app.py
+++ b/ybd/app.py
@@ -150,8 +150,15 @@ def setup(args):
     # Suppress multiple instances of the same warning.
     warnings.simplefilter('once', append=True)
 
+    # dump any applicable environment variables into a config file
+    with open('./ybd.environment', 'w') as f:
+        for key in os.environ:
+            if key[:4] == "YBD_":
+                f.write(key[4:] + ": " + os.environ.get(key) + '\n')
+
     # load config files in reverse order of precedence
     load_configs([
+        os.path.join(os.getcwd(), 'ybd.environment'),
         os.path.join(os.getcwd(), 'ybd.conf'),
         os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..', 'ybd.conf'),
         os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'config', 'ybd.conf')])