diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
new file mode 100644
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+# This workflow will install Python dependencies, run tests and lint with a variety of Python versions
+# For more information see: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/automating-builds-and-tests/building-and-testing-python
+
+# TODO:
+# - cache this directory $HOME/.cache/pyensembl/
+# - update coveralls
+# - get a badge for tests passing
+# - download binary dependencies from conda
+name: Tests
+on: [push, pull_request]
+
+jobs:
+  build:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    strategy:
+      fail-fast: true
+      matrix:
+        python-version: ["3.9", "3.10", "3.11"]
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout repository
+        uses: actions/checkout@v3
+      - name: Set up Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v3
+        with:
+          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+          cache: "pip"
+      - name: Install dependencies
+        run: |
+          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
+          python -m pip install flake8 pytest pytest-cov coveralls pylint
+          pip install -r requirements.txt
+          pip install .
+      - name: Lint with flake8
+        run: |
+          # stop the build if there are Python syntax errors or undefined names
+          flake8 . --count --select=E9,F63,F7,F82 --show-source --statistics
+          # exit-zero treats all errors as warnings. The GitHub editor is 127 chars wide
+          flake8 . --count --exit-zero --max-complexity=10 --max-line-length=127 --statistics
+      - name: Run default linting script
+        run: |
+          ./lint.sh
+      - name: Run unit tests
+        run: |
+          ./test.sh
+      - name: Publish coverage to Coveralls
+        uses: coverallsapp/github-action@v2.2.3