diff --git a/tests/conftest.py b/tests/conftest.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..13b8953cec40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/conftest.py
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+# Session setup and banner for the wic test suite.
+
+import platform
+import sys
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pytest
+
+_SRC = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent / "src"
+if str(_SRC) not in sys.path:
+    sys.path.insert(0, str(_SRC))
+
+try:
+    import wic.cli as _wic_cli
+except Exception as exc:
+    pytest.exit("cannot import wic from %s: %s" % (_SRC, exc), returncode=1)
+
+
+def pytest_report_header(config):
+    return "\n".join([
+        "wic test suite",
+        "  host:   %s  %s %s" % (
+            platform.node(), platform.system(), platform.machine()),
+        "  python: %s   pytest: %s" % (
+            platform.python_version(), pytest.__version__),
+        "  wic:    %s  (%s)" % (
+            getattr(_wic_cli, "__version__", "(unknown)"), _wic_cli.__file__),
+    ])