diff --git a/tests/src/whisk/core/entity/test/ExecManifestTests.scala b/tests/src/whisk/core/entity/test/ExecManifestTests.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..692a466ecd6e04e7bac0dbf7baf945809f301b52
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/src/whisk/core/entity/test/ExecManifestTests.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2015-2016 IBM Corporation
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package whisk.core.entity.test
+
+import org.junit.runner.RunWith
+import org.scalatest.FlatSpec
+import org.scalatest.Matchers
+import org.scalatest.junit.JUnitRunner
+
+import spray.json._
+import spray.json.DefaultJsonProtocol._
+import whisk.core.entity.ExecManifest
+import whisk.core.entity.ExecManifest._
+
+@RunWith(classOf[JUnitRunner])
+class ExecManifestTests
+    extends FlatSpec
+    with Matchers {
+
+    behavior of "ExecManifest"
+
+    it should "read a valid configuration" in {
+        val k1 = RuntimeManifest("k1")
+        val k2 = RuntimeManifest("k2", default = Some(true))
+        val p1 = RuntimeManifest("p1")
+        val mf = JsObject("k" -> Set(k1, k2).toJson, "p1" -> Set(p1).toJson)
+        val runtimes = ExecManifest.runtimes(mf).get
+
+        Seq("k1", "k2", "p1").foreach {
+            runtimes.knownContainerRuntimes.contains(_) shouldBe true
+        }
+
+        runtimes.knownContainerRuntimes.contains("k3") shouldBe false
+
+        runtimes.resolveDefaultRuntime("k1") shouldBe Some(k1)
+        runtimes.resolveDefaultRuntime("k2") shouldBe Some(k2)
+        runtimes.resolveDefaultRuntime("p1") shouldBe Some(p1)
+
+        runtimes.resolveDefaultRuntime("k:default") shouldBe Some(k2)
+        runtimes.resolveDefaultRuntime("p1:default") shouldBe None
+    }
+
+}