diff --git a/README_maintainers.md b/README_maintainers.md
index 671d725abe..33a0376fe6 100644
--- a/README_maintainers.md
+++ b/README_maintainers.md
@@ -305,6 +305,14 @@ scripts/unittest is mostly only a wrapper; The backend functionality lives in:
 **js/server/modules/org/arangodb/testing.js**
 
 
+Running foxx tests with a fake foxx Repo
+----------------------------------------
+Since downloading fox apps from github can be cumbersome with shaky DSL
+and DOS'ed github, we can fake it like this:
+
+    export FOXX_BASE_URL="http://germany/fakegit/"
+    ./scripts/unittest single_server --test 'js/server/tests/shell-foxx-manager-spec.js'
+
 arangod Emergency console
 -------------------------
 
diff --git a/js/common/modules/org/arangodb/foxx/manager-utils.js b/js/common/modules/org/arangodb/foxx/manager-utils.js
index 394190f307..0d15ed27c8 100644
--- a/js/common/modules/org/arangodb/foxx/manager-utils.js
+++ b/js/common/modules/org/arangodb/foxx/manager-utils.js
@@ -82,7 +82,11 @@ function buildGithubUrl (repository, version) {
     version = "master";
   }
 
-  return 'https://github.com/' + repository + '/archive/' + version + '.zip';
+  var urlPrefix = require("process").env.FOXX_BASE_URL;
+  if (urlPrefix === undefined) {
+    urlPrefix = 'https://github.com/';
+  }
+  return  urlPrefix + repository + '/archive/' + version + '.zip';
 }
 
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////