diff --git a/tests/cli/test_compose_sanity.sh b/tests/cli/test_compose_sanity.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..08bc822a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/cli/test_compose_sanity.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# Note: execute this file from the project root directory
+
+. /usr/share/beakerlib/beakerlib.sh
+
+CLI="./src/bin/composer"
+
+
+rlJournalStart
+    rlPhaseStartTest "compose types"
+        rlAssertEquals "lists all supported types" \
+                "`$CLI compose types | sort | xargs`" "ext4-filesystem live-iso partitioned-disk qcow2 tar"
+    rlPhaseEnd
+
+    rlPhaseStartTest "compose start"
+        UUID=`$CLI --test=2 compose start example-http-server tar`
+        rlAssertEquals "exit code should be zero" $? 0
+
+        UUID=`echo $UUID | cut -f 2 -d' '`
+    rlPhaseEnd
+
+    rlPhaseStartTest "compose info"
+        if [ -n "$UUID" ]; then
+            rlRun -t -c "$CLI compose info $UUID | egrep 'RUNNING|WAITING'"
+        else
+            rlFail "Compose UUID is empty!"
+        fi
+    rlPhaseEnd
+
+    rlPhaseStartTest "compose image"
+        if [ -n "$UUID" ]; then
+            until $CLI compose info $UUID | grep FINISHED; do
+                sleep 5
+                rlLogInfo "Waiting for compose to finish ..."
+            done;
+
+            rlRun -t -c "$CLI compose image $UUID"
+            rlAssertExists "$UUID-root.tar.xz"
+        else
+            rlFail "Compose UUID is empty!"
+        fi
+    rlPhaseEnd
+
+rlJournalEnd
+rlJournalPrintText
diff --git a/tests/test_cli.sh b/tests/test_cli.sh
index e3a78392..24f00a15 100755
--- a/tests/test_cli.sh
+++ b/tests/test_cli.sh
@@ -2,13 +2,12 @@
 # Note: execute this file from the project root directory
 
 # setup
-
-export TESTRESULT_BEAKERLIB_DIR=`mktemp -d /var/tmp/beakerlib-composer-XXXXXX`
+rm -rf /var/tmp/beakerlib-*/
 export top_srcdir=`pwd`
 . ./tests/testenv.sh
 
 # start the lorax-composer daemon
-./src/sbin/lorax-composer ./tests/pylorax/blueprints/ &
+./src/sbin/lorax-composer --sharedir ./share/ ./tests/pylorax/blueprints/ &
 
 # wait for the backend to become ready
 until curl --unix-socket /run/weldr/api.socket http://localhost:4000/api/status | grep '"db_supported":true'; do
@@ -18,10 +17,10 @@ done;
 
 # invoke cli/ tests
 ./tests/cli/test_blueprints_sanity.sh
-
+./tests/cli/test_compose_sanity.sh
 
 # look for failures
-grep RESULT_STRING $TESTRESULT_BEAKERLIB_DIR/TestResults | grep -v PASS && exit 1
+grep RESULT_STRING /var/tmp/beakerlib-*/TestResults | grep -v PASS && exit 1
 
 # explicit return code for Makefile
 exit 0