diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..91cad96
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+language: python
+
+python:
+  - "3.5"
+  - "3.6"
+
+before_install:
+  - sudo apt-get -qq update
+  - sudo apt-get install -y ncbi-blast+ prodigal 
+  - wget http://github.com/bbuchfink/diamond/releases/download/v0.9.18/diamond-linux64.tar.gz
+  - tar xzf diamond-linux64.tar.gz
+  - sudo mv diamond /usr/bin
+ 
+install:
+  - pip install -r requirements.txt
+  - pip install .
+
+script:
+  - ./test.sh
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 29abca2..79f0964 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1 +1,5 @@
-requests==2.18.2
+biopython>=1.60
+filetype>=1.0.0
+pytest>=3.0.0
+mock>=2.0.0
+pandas>=0.15.0
diff --git a/test.sh b/test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..14e9c7c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# run unit tests for RGI
+
+# get latest card database
+wget -O card_data.tar.bz2 https://card.mcmaster.ca/latest/data
+mkdir -p card_data
+tar xvf card_data.tar.bz2 -C card_data
+
+# load rgi
+rgi load -i card_data/card.json
+
+# for test_1.py
+cp card_data/card.json app/_data
+
+# for test_3.py
+cp card_data/card.json tests/input
+
+# run unit tests
+cd tests
+pytest -v -rxs
+
+# exit with the exitcode thrown by pytest
+exit $?