diff --git a/packages/kbn-apm-config-loader/src/config.test.ts b/packages/kbn-apm-config-loader/src/config.test.ts
index 83438215716acce..5e7194af6c3398a 100644
--- a/packages/kbn-apm-config-loader/src/config.test.ts
+++ b/packages/kbn-apm-config-loader/src/config.test.ts
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ import {
 
 import { ApmConfiguration } from './config';
 
+const initialEnv = { ...process.env };
+
 describe('ApmConfiguration', () => {
   beforeEach(() => {
     packageMock.raw = {
@@ -39,6 +41,7 @@ describe('ApmConfiguration', () => {
   });
 
   afterEach(() => {
+    process.env = { ...initialEnv };
     resetAllMocks();
   });
 
@@ -90,13 +93,16 @@ describe('ApmConfiguration', () => {
     let config = new ApmConfiguration(mockedRootDir, {}, false);
     expect(config.getConfig('serviceName')).toEqual(
       expect.objectContaining({
-        serverUrl: expect.any(String),
-        secretToken: expect.any(String),
+        breakdownMetrics: true,
       })
     );
 
     config = new ApmConfiguration(mockedRootDir, {}, true);
-    expect(Object.keys(config.getConfig('serviceName'))).not.toContain('serverUrl');
+    expect(config.getConfig('serviceName')).toEqual(
+      expect.objectContaining({
+        breakdownMetrics: false,
+      })
+    );
   });
 
   it('loads the configuration from the kibana config file', () => {
@@ -156,4 +162,29 @@ describe('ApmConfiguration', () => {
       })
     );
   });
+
+  it('sets correctly sets environment', () => {
+    let config = new ApmConfiguration(mockedRootDir, {}, false);
+    expect(config.getConfig('serviceName')).toEqual(
+      expect.objectContaining({
+        environment: 'development',
+      })
+    );
+
+    process.env.ELASTIC_APM_ENVIRONMENT = 'ci';
+    config = new ApmConfiguration(mockedRootDir, {}, false);
+    expect(config.getConfig('serviceName')).toEqual(
+      expect.objectContaining({
+        environment: 'ci',
+      })
+    );
+
+    process.env.NODE_ENV = 'production';
+    config = new ApmConfiguration(mockedRootDir, {}, false);
+    expect(config.getConfig('serviceName')).toEqual(
+      expect.objectContaining({
+        environment: 'production',
+      })
+    );
+  });
 });
diff --git a/packages/kbn-apm-config-loader/src/config.ts b/packages/kbn-apm-config-loader/src/config.ts
index 897e7fd7ca610c4..529a958ff02b0c4 100644
--- a/packages/kbn-apm-config-loader/src/config.ts
+++ b/packages/kbn-apm-config-loader/src/config.ts
@@ -26,33 +26,38 @@ import { readFileSync } from 'fs';
 import { ApmAgentConfig } from './types';
 
 const getDefaultConfig = (isDistributable: boolean): ApmAgentConfig => {
-  if (isDistributable) {
-    return {
-      active: false,
-      globalLabels: {},
-      // Do not use a centralized controlled config
-      centralConfig: false,
-      // Capture all exceptions that are not caught
-      logUncaughtExceptions: true,
-      // Can be performance intensive, disabling by default
-      breakdownMetrics: false,
-    };
-  }
+  // https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/apm/agent/nodejs/current/configuration.html
+  const baseConfig = {
+    active: process.env.ELASTIC_APM_ACTIVE || false,
+    environment: process.env.NODE_ENV || process.env.ELASTIC_APM_ENVIRONMENT || 'development',
+
+    serverUrl: 'https://b1e3b4b4233e44cdad468c127d0af8d8.apm.europe-west1.gcp.cloud.es.io:443',
 
-  return {
-    active: false,
-    serverUrl: 'https://f1542b814f674090afd914960583265f.apm.us-central1.gcp.cloud.es.io:443',
     // The secretToken below is intended to be hardcoded in this file even though
     // it makes it public. This is not a security/privacy issue. Normally we'd
     // instead disable the need for a secretToken in the APM Server config where
     // the data is transmitted to, but due to how it's being hosted, it's easier,
     // for now, to simply leave it in.
-    secretToken: 'R0Gjg46pE9K9wGestd',
+    secretToken: '2OyjjaI6RVkzx2O5CV',
+
+    logUncaughtExceptions: true,
     globalLabels: {},
-    breakdownMetrics: true,
     centralConfig: false,
-    logUncaughtExceptions: true,
+
+    // Can be performance intensive, disabling by default
+    breakdownMetrics: false,
   };
+
+  if (!isDistributable) {
+    return {
+      ...baseConfig,
+      ...{
+        breakdownMetrics: true,
+      },
+    };
+  }
+
+  return baseConfig;
 };
 
 export class ApmConfiguration {
diff --git a/src/dev/ci_setup/setup_env.sh b/src/dev/ci_setup/setup_env.sh
index 8ec80ac295c73c0..8ef7b85b3db9a1c 100644
--- a/src/dev/ci_setup/setup_env.sh
+++ b/src/dev/ci_setup/setup_env.sh
@@ -24,6 +24,11 @@ export NODE_OPTIONS="$NODE_OPTIONS --max-old-space-size=4096"
 ###
 export FORCE_COLOR=1
 
+### Enables APM tracking
+###
+export ELASTIC_APM_ACTIVE=true
+export ELASTIC_APM_ENVIRONMENT=ci
+
 ###
 ### check that we seem to be in a kibana project
 ###