diff --git a/.github/workflows/main.yml b/.github/workflows/main.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6714ddc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/main.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+# much of this is taken from the Empress main.yml file
+name: gneiss CI
+
+on:
+  pull_request:
+    branches:
+      - main
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - main
+
+jobs:
+  build:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+
+    strategy:
+      matrix:
+        python-version: ["3.8", "3.9"]
+
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+        with:
+          persist-credentials: false
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      - uses: conda-incubator/setup-miniconda@v2
+        with:
+          activate-environment: gneiss
+          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+
+      - name: Test conda installation
+        shell: bash -l {0}
+        run: conda info
+
+      - name: Install conda packages
+        shell: bash -l {0}
+        run: conda install -c conda-forge statsmodels scikit-bio biom-format matplotlib flake8
+        
+      - name: Install gneiss
+        shell: bash -l {0}
+        run: pip install -e .[dev]
+        
+      - name: Run tests
+        shell: bash -l {0}
+        run: make all