diff --git a/contrib/ci/arch.sh b/contrib/ci/arch.sh
index 1a10c62f4..7842a2d2b 100755
--- a/contrib/ci/arch.sh
+++ b/contrib/ci/arch.sh
@@ -37,6 +37,10 @@ pacman -Syu --noconfirm qt5-base
 meson qt5-thread-test ../contrib/ci/qt5-thread-test
 ninja -C qt5-thread-test test
 
+#run the CI tests for making sure we can link fwupd/fwupdplugin
+meson out-of-tree-link ../contrib/ci/out-of-tree-link
+ninja -C out-of-tree-link test
+
 # move the package to working dir
 mv *.pkg.* ../dist
 
diff --git a/contrib/ci/out-of-tree-link/.gitignore b/contrib/ci/out-of-tree-link/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..378eac25d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/ci/out-of-tree-link/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+build
diff --git a/contrib/ci/out-of-tree-link/fwupd.c b/contrib/ci/out-of-tree-link/fwupd.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5d73f3c26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/ci/out-of-tree-link/fwupd.c
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#undef NDEBUG
+#include <assert.h>
+
+#include <fwupd.h>
+
+int main (void)
+{
+    assert (fwupd_error_to_string (FWUPD_ERROR_NOTHING_TO_DO) != NULL);
+    return 0;
+}
diff --git a/contrib/ci/out-of-tree-link/fwupdplugin.c b/contrib/ci/out-of-tree-link/fwupdplugin.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..30d1423ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/ci/out-of-tree-link/fwupdplugin.c
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#undef NDEBUG
+#include <assert.h>
+
+#include <fwupdplugin.h>
+
+int main (void)
+{
+    assert (fu_common_vercmp_full ("1.0", "2.1", FWUPD_VERSION_FORMAT_NUMBER) < 0);
+    return 0;
+}
diff --git a/contrib/ci/out-of-tree-link/meson.build b/contrib/ci/out-of-tree-link/meson.build
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..88822b76c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/ci/out-of-tree-link/meson.build
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+  project('out-of-tree-link', 'c',
+  license : 'LGPL-2.1+',
+)
+fwupd = dependency('fwupd')
+fwupdplugin = dependency('fwupdplugin')
+env = environment()
+env.set('G_DEBUG', 'fatal-criticals')
+e = executable(
+  'fwupd',
+  sources : [
+    'fwupd.c'
+  ],
+  dependencies : [
+    fwupd
+  ],
+  )
+test('fwupd', e, timeout: 60, env: env)
+e = executable(
+  'fwupdplugin',
+  sources : [
+    'fwupdplugin.c'
+  ],
+  dependencies : [
+    fwupdplugin
+  ],
+  )
+test('fwupdplugin', e, timeout: 60, env: env)