diff --git a/config.dev.toml b/config.dev.toml
index 7a10d1ba..0ca5cd08 100755
--- a/config.dev.toml
+++ b/config.dev.toml
@@ -15,8 +15,11 @@ GoEnv = "development"
 # GoGetWorkers specifies how many times you can concurrently
 # go mod download, this is so that low performance instances
 # can manage go get more sanely and not run out of disk or memory.
+# One way to think about is: the number of GoGetWorkers corresponds
+# directly to how many parallel "git clones" your underlying machine
+# can handle. 
 # Env override: ATHENS_GOGET_WORKERS
-GoGetWorkers = 30
+GoGetWorkers = 10
 
 # ProtocolWorkers specifies how many concurrent
 # requests can you handle at a time for all
diff --git a/pkg/config/config_test.go b/pkg/config/config_test.go
index aa54f2ad..e1332323 100644
--- a/pkg/config/config_test.go
+++ b/pkg/config/config_test.go
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ func TestParseExampleConfig(t *testing.T) {
 		GoEnv:           "development",
 		LogLevel:        "debug",
 		GoBinary:        "go",
-		GoGetWorkers:    30,
+		GoGetWorkers:    10,
 		ProtocolWorkers: 30,
 		CloudRuntime:    "none",
 		TimeoutConf: TimeoutConf{