diff --git a/.github/workflows/changelog_check.yml b/.github/workflows/changelog_check.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..26c17e42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/changelog_check.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+name: Changelog
+on: [pull_request]
+
+jobs:
+  check-newsfile:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+          ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@v2
+        with:
+          python-version: "3.7"
+      - run: python -m pip install towncrier
+      - run: python -m towncrier.check --compare-with=${{ github.base_ref }}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.github/workflows/pipeline.yml b/.github/workflows/pipeline.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4d128ac7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/pipeline.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+name: Linting and tests
+on: 
+  pull_request:
+  push:
+    branches: ["main"]
+jobs: 
+  check-code-style:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps: 
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@v2
+        with: 
+          python-version: '3.6'
+      - run: python -m pip install -e .
+      - run: black --check --diff sydent/ tests/ matrix_is_test/ setup.py
+      - run: flake8 sydent/ tests/ matrix_is_test/ setup.py
+
+  run-unit-tests:
+    needs: [check-code-style]
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    strategy:
+      matrix:
+        python-version: ['3.6', '3.x']
+    
+    steps: 
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@v2
+        with:
+         python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+      - run: python -m pip install -e .
+      - run: trial tests
+
+  run-matrix-is-tests:
+    needs: [check-code-style]
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    strategy:
+    matrix:
+      python-version: ['3.6', '3.x'] 
+    
+    steps: 
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@v2
+        with:
+          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+      - run: python -m pip install -e .
+      - run: pip install git+https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-is-tester.git
+      - run: trial matrix_is_tester
+
+  
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/changelog.d/346.misc b/changelog.d/346.misc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3d04e14e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/346.misc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Add github actions for unittests (python 3.6 and 3.9), matrix_is_tester tests (python 3.6 and 3.9), towncrier checks and black and flake8 codestyle checks.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 58072062..6e64cf12 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -54,6 +54,8 @@ def read(fname):
         "six>=1.10",
         "pyyaml>=3.11",
         "mock>=3.0.5",
+        "flake8==3.9.2",
+        "black==21.5b1",
     ],
     # make sure we package the sql files
     include_package_data=True,