stop safari searching when browsing local urls

I am working on local developments on my local web server. I have dnsmasq on my mac to redirect all .test domains back to my own machine. I'll have an url like "mysite.test/some/path/1" in the url bar. When in Safari, and only Safari, any time I change a url manually it goes to my default search engine. What I mean is, if I go to the url bar and change the url, by hand, to "mysite.test/some/path/2" and press enter - it throws that as a query to my configured search engine, rather than opening the local site. To make it work, I have to *by hand*, and *every time*, add http:// at the start of the url, then make my url change, then press enter. Oh. My. God. Safari. Stop. How can I convince Safari that when I'm working on local domains that I do not want to search? I'd be happy to never ever in a million years use the url bar for searching the web, if that's even possible.