diff --git a/test/sharness/t0041-add-cat-offline.sh b/test/sharness/t0041-add-cat-offline.sh
index cb370eec009..674e65284c9 100755
--- a/test/sharness/t0041-add-cat-offline.sh
+++ b/test/sharness/t0041-add-cat-offline.sh
@@ -31,4 +31,19 @@ test_expect_success "output looks good" '
 	test_cmp afile out_2
 '
 
+test_expect_success "useful error message when adding a named pipe" '
+	mkfifo named-pipe
+	test_expect_code 1 ipfs add named-pipe 2>named-pipe-error
+	echo "Error: \`named-pipe\` is an unknown type" >named-pipe-error-expected
+	test_cmp named-pipe-error-expected named-pipe-error
+'
+
+test_expect_success "useful error message when recursively adding a named pipe" '
+	mkdir named-pipe-dir
+	mkfifo named-pipe-dir/named-pipe
+	test_expect_code 1 ipfs add -r named-pipe-dir 2>named-pipe-dir-error
+	echo "Error: \`named-pipe-dir/named-pipe\` is an unknown type" >named-pipe-dir-error-expected
+	test_cmp named-pipe-dir-error-expected named-pipe-dir-error
+'
+
 test_done