diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 3129151..e63215f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -13,9 +13,10 @@ jobs:
         runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 
         env:
-            SPOTIFY_API_BASE_URL: ${{ vars.SPOTIFY_API_BASE_URL }}
-            SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID: ${{ vars.SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID }}
-            SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET: ${{ secrets.SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET }}
+          ENV_PROFILE: production
+          SPOTIFY_API_BASE_URL: ${{ vars.SPOTIFY_API_BASE_URL }}
+          SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID: ${{ vars.SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID }}
+          SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET: ${{ secrets.SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET }}
         steps:
             - name: Checkout code
               uses: actions/checkout@v3
diff --git a/poetry.lock b/poetry.lock
index 51d84ca..c334a18 100644
--- a/poetry.lock
+++ b/poetry.lock
@@ -841,6 +841,22 @@ files = [
     {file = "sniffio-1.3.1.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:f4324edc670a0f49750a81b895f35c3adb843cca46f0530f79fc1babb23789dc"},
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "tenacity"
+version = "8.5.0"
+description = "Retry code until it succeeds"
+optional = false
+python-versions = ">=3.8"
+groups = ["main"]
+files = [
+    {file = "tenacity-8.5.0-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:b594c2a5945830c267ce6b79a166228323ed52718f30302c1359836112346687"},
+    {file = "tenacity-8.5.0.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:8bc6c0c8a09b31e6cad13c47afbed1a567518250a9a171418582ed8d9c20ca78"},
+]
+
+[package.extras]
+doc = ["reno", "sphinx"]
+test = ["pytest", "tornado (>=4.5)", "typeguard"]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "typing-extensions"
 version = "4.13.2"
@@ -889,4 +905,4 @@ zstd = ["zstandard (>=0.18.0)"]
 [metadata]
 lock-version = "2.1"
 python-versions = ">=3.13"
-content-hash = "4b244f11d491da99d93e61023da8b16f01ba8524f203862fc421a495257db667"
+content-hash = "2bd04ec098f890539481e9fb5322931ecb127966461ab9de3a02e6e72c8e42fd"
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index ba8bc10..f2f6263 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ dependencies = [
     "httpx (>=0.28.1,<0.29.0)",
     "python-dotenv (>=1.1.0,<2.0.0)",
     "pydantic (>=2.11.5,<3.0.0)",
-    "pydantic-settings (>=2.9.1,<3.0.0)"
+    "pydantic-settings (>=2.9.1,<3.0.0)",
+    "tenacity (>=8.2.2,<9.0.0)",
 ]
 
 [tool.poetry]
diff --git a/src/api_testing_framework/client.py b/src/api_testing_framework/client.py
index 3336cd3..b166012 100644
--- a/src/api_testing_framework/client.py
+++ b/src/api_testing_framework/client.py
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 from typing import Any, Dict, Optional
 
 import httpx
+from tenacity import (
+    retry,
+    retry_if_exception_type,
+    stop_after_attempt,
+    wait_exponential,
+)
 
 from api_testing_framework.exceptions import APIError
 
@@ -52,12 +58,26 @@ def _handle_response(self, response: httpx.Response) -> dict:
             raise APIError(response.status_code, data.get("error", response.text), data)
         return data
 
+    @retry(
+        reraise=True,
+        stop=stop_after_attempt(3),
+        wait=wait_exponential(multiplier=1, min=1, max=10),
+        retry=retry_if_exception_type(APIError),
+    )
     def get(self, path: str, params: Dict[str, Any] = None) -> dict:
+        """GET with retries on APIError"""
         self._refresh_token_if_needed()
         resp = self._client.get(path, params=params)
         return self._handle_response(resp)
 
+    @retry(
+        reraise=True,
+        stop=stop_after_attempt(3),
+        wait=wait_exponential(multiplier=1, min=1, max=10),
+        retry=retry_if_exception_type(APIError),
+    )
     def post(self, path: str, json: Dict[str, Any] = None) -> dict:
+        """POST with retries on APIError"""
         self._refresh_token_if_needed()
         resp = self._client.post(path, json=json)
         return self._handle_response(resp)
diff --git a/src/api_testing_framework/config.py b/src/api_testing_framework/config.py
index 575ae4f..4be6de7 100644
--- a/src/api_testing_framework/config.py
+++ b/src/api_testing_framework/config.py
@@ -1,15 +1,33 @@
+import os
+from typing import List, Optional
 
 from pydantic_settings import BaseSettings, SettingsConfigDict
 
+
 class Settings(BaseSettings):
     spotify_client_id: str
     spotify_client_secret: str
     spotify_api_base_url: str
 
-    model_config = SettingsConfigDict(env_file=".env")
+    # Pass env_file at instantiation so the class-level default is disabled
+    model_config = SettingsConfigDict(env_file=None)
+
 
-def get_settings() -> Settings:
+def get_settings(env_profile: Optional[str] = None) -> Settings:
     """
-    Read and return a fresh Settings object.
+    Load settings from
+        1) .env.{env_profile} if it exists
+        2) .env               if it exists
+    The profile defaults to the ENV_PROFILE environment variable (or 'dev').
     """
-    return Settings()
\ No newline at end of file
+    if env_profile is None:
+        env_profile = os.getenv("ENV_PROFILE", "dev")
+
+    cwd = os.getcwd()
+    candidate_files: List[str] = [
+        os.path.join(cwd, f".env.{env_profile}"),
+        os.path.join(cwd, ".env"),
+    ]
+    env_files = [f for f in candidate_files if os.path.isfile(f)]
+
+    return Settings(_env_file=env_files or None)