diff --git a/swh/graph/tests/test_cli.py b/swh/graph/tests/test_cli.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e24e0e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/swh/graph/tests/test_cli.py
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+# 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
+
+import unittest
+
+from pathlib import Path
+from tempfile import TemporaryDirectory
+from typing import Dict
+
+from click.testing import CliRunner
+
+import swh.graph
+
+from swh.graph import cli
+
+
+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):
+
+    DATA_DIR = Path(swh.graph.__file__).parent.parent.parent \
+        / 'tests' / 'dataset'
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.runner = CliRunner()
+
+    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])
+
+            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)