diff --git a/packages/create-dapp/test/test-sanity.js b/packages/create-dapp/test/test-sanity.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..f4424d587686
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/create-dapp/test/test-sanity.js
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+import test from 'ava';
+import { spawnSync } from 'child_process';
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';
+
+const binname = fileURLToPath(
+  new URL('../src/create-dapp.js', import.meta.url),
+);
+
+test('sanity', async t => {
+  await null;
+  const myMain = args => {
+    return spawnSync(binname, args, { stdio: 'ignore' }).status;
+  };
+
+  t.is(await myMain(['--help']), 0, '--help exits zero');
+  t.is(await myMain(['--version']), 0, '--version exits zero');
+  t.is(await myMain(['--zorgar']), 1, 'unknown flag fails');
+});
diff --git a/packages/create-dapp/test/test-stub.js b/packages/create-dapp/test/test-stub.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 4a05abe39764..000000000000
--- a/packages/create-dapp/test/test-stub.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-import test from 'ava';
-
-test.todo('write some tests');