diff --git a/swh/graph/tests/test_cli.py b/swh/graph/tests/test_cli.py
index 4eaa389..a4e70fd 100644
--- a/swh/graph/tests/test_cli.py
+++ b/swh/graph/tests/test_cli.py
@@ -1,45 +1,56 @@
 # Copyright (C) 2019  The Software Heritage developers
 # See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
 from pathlib import Path
 from tempfile import TemporaryDirectory
 from typing import Dict
+import yaml
 
 from click.testing import CliRunner
 
 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"""
     with open(properties_fname) as f:
         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)
 
 
 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()
 
     with TemporaryDirectory(suffix=".swh-graph-test") as tmpdir:
+        config_path = Path(tmpdir, "config.yml")
+        config_path.write_text(yaml.dump(config))
+
         result = runner.invoke(
             cli,
-            ["compress", "--graph", DATA_DIR / "example", "--outdir", tmpdir],
-            obj={"config": config},
+            [
+                "--config-file",
+                config_path,
+                "compress",
+                "--graph",
+                DATA_DIR / "example",
+                "--outdir",
+                tmpdir,
+            ],
         )
         assert result.exit_code == 0, result
         properties = read_properties(Path(tmpdir) / "example.properties")
 
     assert int(properties["nodes"]) == 21
     assert int(properties["arcs"]) == 23