diff --git a/light9/web/graph_test.coffee b/light9/web/graph_test.coffee
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/light9/web/graph_test.coffee
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+assert = require('chai').assert
+SyncedGraph = require('./graph.js').SyncedGraph
+
+describe 'SyncedGraph', ->
+  describe 'constructor', ->
+    it 'should successfully make an empty graph without connecting to rdfdb', ->
+      g = new SyncedGraph()
+      g.quads()
+      assert.equal(g.quads().length, 0)
+