diff --git a/chatmaild/pyproject.toml b/chatmaild/pyproject.toml
index adce0217..9dfd147b 100644
--- a/chatmaild/pyproject.toml
+++ b/chatmaild/pyproject.toml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ addopts = "-v -ra --strict-markers"
 legacy_tox_ini = """
 [tox]
 isolated_build = true
-envlist = lint
+envlist = lint,py
 
 [testenv:lint]
 skipdist = True
@@ -31,4 +31,10 @@ deps =
 commands =
   black --quiet --check --diff src/
   ruff src/
+
+[testenv]
+passenv = CHATMAIL_DOMAIN
+deps = pytest 
+       pdbpp 
+commands = pytest -v -rsXx {posargs: ../tests/chatmaild}
 """
diff --git a/scripts/init.sh b/scripts/init.sh
index c20bb21a..3e19cf36 100755
--- a/scripts/init.sh
+++ b/scripts/init.sh
@@ -1,13 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 set -e
-python3 -m venv deploy-chatmail/venv
-deploy-chatmail/venv/bin/pip install pyinfra pytest
-deploy-chatmail/venv/bin/pip install -e deploy-chatmail
-deploy-chatmail/venv/bin/pip install -e chatmaild
+python3 -m venv venv
+pip=venv/bin/pip
 
-python3 -m venv chatmaild/venv
-chatmaild/venv/bin/pip install --upgrade pytest build 'setuptools>=68'
-chatmaild/venv/bin/pip install -e chatmaild
-
-python3 -m venv online-tests/venv
-online-tests/venv/bin/pip install pytest pytest-timeout pdbpp deltachat 
+$pip install pyinfra pytest build 'setuptools>=68' tox 
+$pip install -e deploy-chatmail 
+$pip install -e chatmaild 
diff --git a/scripts/test.sh b/scripts/test.sh
index e7ce0a4b..53c93122 100755
--- a/scripts/test.sh
+++ b/scripts/test.sh
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
 #!/bin/bash
-chatmaild/venv/bin/pytest chatmaild/ $@
-online-tests/venv/bin/pytest online-tests/ -vrx --durations=5 $@
+
+pushd chatmaild
+tox
+popd 
+
+pushd deploy-chatmail
+tox
+popd 
+
+venv/bin/pytest tests/online -vrx --durations=5 $@
diff --git a/tests/chatmaild/test_filtermail.py b/tests/chatmaild/test_filtermail.py
index 1965f49e..13b0c92f 100644
--- a/tests/chatmaild/test_filtermail.py
+++ b/tests/chatmaild/test_filtermail.py
@@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ from chatmaild.filtermail import check_encrypted, check_DATA, SendRateLimiter
 import pytest
 
 
+@pytest.fixture
+def maildomain():
+    # let's not depend on a real chatmail instance for the offline tests below
+    return "chatmail.example.org"
+
+
 def test_reject_forged_from(maildata, gencreds):
     class env:
         mail_from = gencreds()[0]