Is there a handy dandy environment variable I can export to tell the prefect CLI that I want it to use the 'server' backend rather than 'cloud'?

Try:

PREFECT__BACKEND: "server"

ah! I was trying

PREFECT_BACKEND

with only one underscore

also helpful:

export PREFECT__BACKEND="server"
export PREFECT__BACKEND__HOST="<http://apollo>"
export PREFECT__BACKEND__PORT="4200"

change http://apollo and

4200

to be whatever it is locally, obviously! then prefect is fully tied to your local

got it!