diff --git a/stages/test/test_tar.py b/stages/test/test_tar.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6a988a69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/stages/test/test_tar.py
@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python3
+
+import os.path
+import subprocess
+
+import pytest
+
+from osbuild import testutil
+from osbuild.testutil import has_executable, make_fake_input_tree
+
+STAGE_NAME = "org.osbuild.tar"
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("test_data,expected_err", [
+    # bad
+    ({}, "'filename' is a required property"),
+    ({
+        "filename": "out.tar",
+        "root-node": "include",
+        "paths": ["file1"]
+    }, "{'filename': 'out.tar', 'root-node': 'include', 'paths': ['file1']} is not valid under any of the given schemas"),
+    # good
+    ({"filename": "out.tar", "root-node": "include"}, ""),
+    ({"filename": "out.tar", "paths": ["file1"]}, ""),
+    ({"filename": "out.tar"}, ""),
+])
+def test_schema_validation_tar(stage_schema, test_data, expected_err):
+    test_input = {
+        "type": STAGE_NAME,
+        "options": {
+        }
+    }
+    test_input["options"].update(test_data)
+    res = stage_schema.validate(test_input)
+
+    if expected_err == "":
+        assert res.valid is True, f"err: {[e.as_dict() for e in res.errors]}"
+    else:
+        assert res.valid is False
+        testutil.assert_jsonschema_error_contains(res, expected_err, expected_num_errs=1)
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(name="fake_inputs")
+def make_fake_inputs(tmp_path):
+    fake_input_tree = make_fake_input_tree(tmp_path, {
+        "/file1": "A file to be tarred",
+        "/file2": "Another file to be tarred",
+    })
+    inputs = {
+        "tree": {
+            "path": fake_input_tree,
+        }
+    }
+    return inputs
+
+
+@pytest.mark.skipif(not has_executable("tar"), reason="no tar executable")
+def test_tar_filename(tmp_path, stage_module, fake_inputs):
+    options = {
+        "filename": "out.tar",
+    }
+    stage_module.main(fake_inputs, tmp_path, options)
+
+    tar_path = os.path.join(tmp_path, "out.tar")
+    assert os.path.exists(tar_path)
+    output = subprocess.check_output(["tar", "-tf", tar_path], encoding="utf-8").strip().split("\n")
+    assert sorted(["./", "./file1", "./file2"]) == sorted(output)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.skipif(not has_executable("tar"), reason="no tar executable")
+def test_tar_root_node_omit(tmp_path, stage_module, fake_inputs):
+    options = {
+        "filename": "out.tar",
+        "root-node": "omit",
+    }
+    stage_module.main(fake_inputs, tmp_path, options)
+
+    tar_path = os.path.join(tmp_path, "out.tar")
+    assert os.path.exists(tar_path)
+    output = subprocess.check_output(["tar", "-tf", tar_path], encoding="utf-8").strip().split("\n")
+    assert sorted(["file1", "file2"]) == sorted(output)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.skipif(not has_executable("tar"), reason="no tar executable")
+def test_tar_paths(tmp_path, stage_module, fake_inputs):
+    options = {
+        "filename": "out.tar",
+        "paths": [
+            "file2",
+            "file1",
+            "file1",
+            "file2",
+        ]
+    }
+    stage_module.main(fake_inputs, tmp_path, options)
+
+    tar_path = os.path.join(tmp_path, "out.tar")
+    assert os.path.exists(tar_path)
+    output = subprocess.check_output(["tar", "-tf", tar_path], encoding="utf-8").split("\n")
+    assert ["file2", "file1", "file1", "file2", ""] == output