diff --git a/swh/graph/tests/test_cli.py b/swh/graph/tests/test_cli.py
--- a/swh/graph/tests/test_cli.py
+++ b/swh/graph/tests/test_cli.py
@@ -3,68 +3,44 @@
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
-import unittest
-
 from pathlib import Path
-from tempfile import TemporaryDirectory, NamedTemporaryFile
+from tempfile import TemporaryDirectory
 from typing import Dict
 
 from click.testing import CliRunner
 
-from swh.core import config
-from swh.graph import cli
+from swh.graph.cli import cli
+
+
+DATA_DIR = Path(__file__).parents[0] / "dataset"
 
 
 def read_properties(properties_fname) -> Dict[str, str]:
     """read a Java .properties file"""
-    properties = {}
     with open(properties_fname) as f:
-        for line in f:
-            if line.startswith("#"):
-                continue
-            (key, value) = line.rstrip().split("=", maxsplit=1)
-            properties[key] = value
-
-    return properties
-
-
-class TestCompress(unittest.TestCase):
+        keyvalues = (
+            line.split("=", maxsplit=1)
+            for line in f
+            if not line.strip().startswith("#")
+        )
+        return dict((k.strip(), v.strip()) for (k, v) in keyvalues)
 
-    DATA_DIR = Path(__file__).parents[0] / "dataset"
 
-    def setUp(self):
-        self.runner = CliRunner()
+def test_pipeline():
+    """run full compression pipeline"""
+    # bare bone configuration, to allow testing the compression pipeline
+    # with minimum RAM requirements on trivial graphs
+    config = {"graph": {"compress": {"batch_size": 1000}}}
+    runner = CliRunner()
 
-        tmpconf = NamedTemporaryFile(
-            mode="w", delete=False, prefix="swh-graph-test", suffix=".yml"
-        )
-        # bare bone configuration, to allow testing the compression pipeline
-        # with minimum RAM requirements on trivial graphs
-        tmpconf.write(
-            """
-graph:
-  compress:
-    batch_size: 1000
-"""
+    with TemporaryDirectory(suffix=".swh-graph-test") as tmpdir:
+        result = runner.invoke(
+            cli,
+            ["compress", "--graph", DATA_DIR / "example", "--outdir", tmpdir],
+            obj={"config": config},
         )
-        tmpconf.close()
-        self.conffile = Path(tmpconf.name)
-        self.config = config.read(self.conffile, cli.DEFAULT_CONFIG)
-
-    def tearDown(self):
-        if self.conffile.exists():
-            self.conffile.unlink()
-
-    def test_pipeline(self):
-        """run full compression pipeline"""
-        with TemporaryDirectory(suffix=".swh-graph-test") as tmpdir:
-            result = self.runner.invoke(
-                cli.compress,
-                ["--graph", self.DATA_DIR / "example", "--outdir", tmpdir],
-                obj={"config": self.config},
-            )
+        assert result.exit_code == 0, result
+        properties = read_properties(Path(tmpdir) / "example.properties")
 
-            self.assertEqual(result.exit_code, 0)
-            properties = read_properties(Path(tmpdir) / "example.properties")
-            self.assertEqual(int(properties["nodes"]), 21)
-            self.assertEqual(int(properties["arcs"]), 23)
+    assert int(properties["nodes"]) == 21
+    assert int(properties["arcs"]) == 23