diff --git a/.github/workflows/test-server.yml b/.github/workflows/test-server.yml
index dcada15ed..c303f5883 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test-server.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test-server.yml
@@ -310,6 +310,7 @@ jobs:
       TEST_SUITE_WEBSITE: ${{ secrets.TEST_SUITE_WEBSITE }}
       NUQ_DATABASE_URL: postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/postgres
       NUQ_RABBITMQ_URL: amqp://localhost:5672
+      NUQ_WORKER_COUNT: 12
       HOST: 0.0.0.0
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v5
diff --git a/apps/api/src/harness.ts b/apps/api/src/harness.ts
index 513a1ea73..c5ea958b0 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/harness.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/harness.ts
@@ -96,6 +96,8 @@ const EXTRACT_WORKER_PORT = process.env.EXTRACT_WORKER_PORT ?? "3004";
 const NUQ_WORKER_START_PORT = Number(
   process.env.NUQ_WORKER_START_PORT ?? "3006",
 );
+const NUQ_WORKER_COUNT = Number(process.env.NUQ_WORKER_COUNT ?? "5");
+const NUQ_PREFETCH_WORKER_PORT = NUQ_WORKER_START_PORT + NUQ_WORKER_COUNT;
 
 const logger = {
   section(message: string) {
@@ -611,7 +613,7 @@ async function startServices(command?: string[]): Promise<Services> {
     },
   );
 
-  const nuqWorkers = Array.from({ length: 5 }, (_, i) =>
+  const nuqWorkers = Array.from({ length: NUQ_WORKER_COUNT }, (_, i) =>
     execForward(
       `nuq-worker-${i}`,
       process.argv[2] === "--start-docker"
@@ -632,7 +634,7 @@ async function startServices(command?: string[]): Promise<Services> {
           ? "node --import ./dist/src/otel.js dist/src/services/worker/nuq-prefetch-worker.js"
           : "pnpm nuq-prefetch-worker:production",
         {
-          NUQ_PREFETCH_WORKER_PORT: String(3011),
+          NUQ_PREFETCH_WORKER_PORT: String(NUQ_PREFETCH_WORKER_PORT),
           NUQ_REDUCE_NOISE: "true",
           NUQ_POD_NAME: "nuq-prefetch-worker-0",
           NUQ_PREFETCH_REPLICAS: String(1),