diff --git a/metaflow/tests/flows/step_counter_flow.py b/metaflow/tests/flows/step_counter_flow.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..5ad1cfbb6e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/metaflow/tests/flows/step_counter_flow.py
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+from metaflow.plugins import STEP_DECORATORS
+
+from metaflow.tests.flows import NewLinearFlow
+from metaflow.tests.step_counter import StepCounter
+
+STEP_DECORATORS.append(StepCounter)
+
+
+class StepCounterFlow(NewLinearFlow):
+    """Example flow that can receive `--with step_counter` from the CLI
+
+    In order for `--with my_decorator` to work on the CLI, `my_decorator` needs to added to `STEP_DECORATORS`, as above.
+    I don't know of a good way to accomplish that other than making a trivial flow (`StepCounterFlow` here) that just
+    mixes in the target flow (`NewLinearFlow`) in a file that appends the decorator (`StepCounter`) to `STEP_DECORATORS.
+
+    TODO: formalize an API for registering step- and flow-decorators without having to define a new flow like this.
+    """
+    pass
diff --git a/metaflow/tests/step_counter.py b/metaflow/tests/step_counter.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..91a3ee6bf6c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/metaflow/tests/step_counter.py
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+from metaflow.decorators import StepDecorator
+
+class StepCounter(StepDecorator):
+    name = "step_counter"
+
+    def task_post_step(self, step_name, flow, graph, retry_count, max_user_code_retries):
+        if not hasattr(flow, 'step_count'):
+            flow.step_count = 0
+        flow.step_count += 1
+        print('step count: %d' % flow.step_count)
diff --git a/metaflow/tests/test_decorators.py b/metaflow/tests/test_decorators.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..315c5a3397c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/metaflow/tests/test_decorators.py
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+from metaflow.tests.flows.step_counter_flow import StepCounterFlow
+from metaflow.tests.utils import run
+
+
+def test_step_count():
+    flow = StepCounterFlow
+    data = run(flow, args=('run','--with','step_counter',))
+    assert data == { 'a': 111, 'b': 222, 'checked': True, 'step_count': 5, }