diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yml b/.github/workflows/test.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1e9c322
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+
+name: Run tests
+
+on:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+  pull_request:
+  push:
+
+jobs:
+  build-and-test:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+
+    permissions:
+      contents: read
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout repository
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
+      - name: Test people.json is valid JSON
+        run: |
+          python3 -c 'import json; json.load(open("people.json"))'
+
+      - name: Test image builds
+        run: |
+          docker compose -f compose.yml build
+
+      - name: Test container can start and is healthy
+        run: |
+          # Launch the project from docker-compose.yml and wait up to
+          # 30s for its built-in health check to return "healthy"
+          if ! docker compose -f compose.yml up --wait --wait-timeout 30; then
+            docker compose logs
+            docker inspect --format='{{json .State.Health}}' rse-skills-graph-web-1 | jq
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          docker compose -f compose.yml down
+
+      # - name: Run Pytest tests
+      #   run: |
+      #     docker compose -f compose.yml run --entrypoint "" web pytest
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index bf69e9a..02a9ade 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ FROM ubuntu:18.04
 MAINTAINER "Ian Hinder <ian.hinder@manchester.ac.uk>"
 
 RUN apt-get update -y && \
-    apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip python3-requests graphviz libgraphviz-dev && \
+    apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip python3-requests graphviz libgraphviz-dev curl && \
     rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 COPY ./requirements.txt /app/requirements.txt
@@ -21,3 +21,8 @@ ENV LAST_UPDATE=$last_update
 ENTRYPOINT [ "python3" ]
 
 CMD [ "application.py" ]
+
+# TODO: in docker 25 and later, we should use --start-interval and
+# --start-period to perform more frequent checks on startup to speed
+# up tests
+HEALTHCHECK --interval=10s CMD curl --fail http://localhost:5000 || exit 1   
diff --git a/compose.yml b/compose.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b0a4283
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compose.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+services:
+  web:
+    build: .
+    ports:
+      - "5000:5000"