diff --git a/.github/workflows/api.yaml b/.github/workflows/api.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..32da03aa47a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/api.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+name: API tests
+on: [push, pull_request]
+env:
+  GALAXY_TEST_DBURI: 'postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/galaxy?client_encoding=utf8'
+jobs:
+  test:
+    name: Test
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    strategy:
+      matrix:
+        python-version: ['3.7']
+    services:
+      postgres:
+        image: postgres:11
+        env:
+          POSTGRES_USER: postgres
+          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
+          POSTGRES_DB: postgres
+        ports:
+          - 5432:5432
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+        with:
+          path: 'galaxy root'
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@v2
+        with:
+          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+      - name: Cache pip dir
+        uses: actions/cache@v2
+        with:
+          path: ~/.cache/pip
+          key: pip-cache-${{ matrix.python-version }}-${{ hashFiles('galaxy root/requirements.txt') }}
+      - name: Run tests
+        run: ./run_tests.sh --skip_flakey_fails -api
+        working-directory: 'galaxy root'
+      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
+        if: failure()
+        with:
+          name: API test results
+          path: 'galaxy root/run_api_tests.html'