diff --git a/test/default_test_config/config.yml b/test/default_test_config/config.yml
index 087049261..77a9ad237 100644
--- a/test/default_test_config/config.yml
+++ b/test/default_test_config/config.yml
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# This config is used in our integration tests. If we want to modify this for a specific test, you can do so in the SetupConfig function
+
 disableStartupPopups: true
 gui:
   theme:
@@ -8,3 +10,10 @@ gui:
     - reverse
   # TODO: we should update most tests to use a file tree now that it's the default
   showFileTree: false
+git:
+  # We don't want to run any periodic background git commands because it'll introduce race conditions and flakiness.
+  # If we need to refresh something from within the test (which should only really happen if we've invoked a
+  # shell command in the background) we should have the user press shift+R to refresh.
+  # TODO: add tests which explicitly test auto-refresh functionality
+  autoRefresh: false
+  autoFetch: false