diff --git a/.github/workflows/test-cli.yml b/.github/workflows/test-cli.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be410c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/test-cli.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+name: builds
+on: [push, pull_request]
+
+jobs:
+  makefile:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+      - name: setup
+        run: |
+          sudo apt-get update -y
+          sudo apt-get install -y util-linux libmount-dev squashfs-tools wget
+          sudo mkdir -p /user-environment
+          sudo mkdir -p /user-profilers
+          sudo mkdir -p /user-tools
+          # install squashfs-mount
+          (
+            dd=$(mktemp -d)
+            cd "$dd"
+            git clone --depth=1 git@github.com:eth-cscs/squashfs-mount.git
+            cd squashfs-mount
+            sudo make install-suid
+          )
+          # install bash-bats
+          (
+            dd=$(mktemp -d)
+            cd "$dd"
+            sudo curl -L https://github.com/bats-core/bats-core/archive/refs/tags/v1.9.0.tar.gz | sudo tar xz
+            sudo mkdir bats-helpers
+            sudo git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/bats-core/bats-assert.git bats-helpers/bats-assert
+            sudo git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/bats-core/bats-support.git bats-helpers/bats-support
+          )
+      - name: build
+        run: |
+          sudo make install-suid
+      - name: test
+        run: |
+          export BATS_LIB_PATH=/bats-helpers
+          /bats-core-1.9.0/bin/bats ci/tests.bats
diff --git a/ci/tests.bats b/ci/tests.bats
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cbe9058
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/tests.bats
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+function setup() {
+    bats_load_library bats-support
+    bats_load_library bats-assert
+    SQFSDIR=$(mktemp -d)
+    export SQFSDIR
+    dd=$(mktemp -d)
+    (
+        umask 022
+        cd "$dd" || exit
+        mkdir spack-install
+        echo "This is file A" >> spack-install/fileA.txt
+    )
+
+    mksquashfs "$dd"  ${SQFSDIR}/binaries.sqfs  -quiet -noappend && rm -r "$dd"
+
+    dd=$(mktemp -d)
+    (
+        umask 022
+        cd "$dd" || exit
+        mkdir profilers
+        echo "profiler stack" >> profilers/fileB.txt
+    )
+    mksquashfs "$dd"  ${SQFSDIR}/profilers.sqfs -quiet  -noappend && rm -r "$dd"
+
+    dd=$(mktemp -d)
+    (
+        umask 022
+        cd "$dd" || exit
+        mkdir tools
+        echo "tools stack" >> tools/fileB.txt
+    )
+    mksquashfs "$dd"  ${SQFSDIR}/tools.sqfs -quiet -noappend && rm -r "$dd"
+}
+
+function teardown() {
+    rm -r ${SQFSDIR}
+}
+
+
+@test "mount_single_image" {
+    run squashfs-mount ${SQFSDIR}/binaries.sqfs -- cat /user-environment/spack-install/fileA.txt
+}
+
+#@test "mount_images" {
+#    run squashfs-mount ${SQFSDIR}/binaries.sqfs:/user-environment ${SQFSDIR}/profilers.sqfs:/user-profilers ${SQFSDIR}/tools.sqfs:/user-tools -- cat /user-environment/spack-install/fileA.txt
+#}
+
+
+#@test "check_environment_variable" {
+#    run bash -c 'squashfs-mount ${SQFSDIR}/binaries.sqfs:/user-environment ${SQFSDIR}/profilers.sqfs:/user-profilers ${SQFSDIR}/tools.sqfs:/user-tools -- (env | grep UENV_MOUNT_LIST)'
+}
+
+#@test "invalid_argument" {
+#    run squashfs-mount invalid_argument -- true
+#    assert_failure 1
+#}
+
+#@test "noop" {
+#    # check that no namespace is unshared, when nothing is mounted
+#    original_mnt=$(readlink /proc/$$/ns/mnt)
+#    run bash -c 'squashfs-mount -- readlink /proc/$$/ns/mnt'
+#    assert_output --partial ${original_mnt}
+#}