diff --git a/qa-core/README.md b/qa-core/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b812742ab3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qa-core/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# QA Core API Tests
+
+The QA Core API tests are a jest suite that run directly against the budibase backend APIs.
+
+## Auto Setup
+You can run the whole test suite with one command, that spins up the budibase server and runs the jest tests:
+
+`yarn api:test` 
+
+## Setup Server Only
+You can also just stand up the budibase server alone.
+
+`yarn api:server:setup` 
+
+## Run Tests
+If you configured the server using the previous command, you can run the whole test suite by using:
+
+`yarn test` 
+
+for watch mode, where the tests will run on every change:
+
+`yarn test:watch` 
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/qa-core/package.json b/qa-core/package.json
index 7cd566587e..e624b2d62d 100644
--- a/qa-core/package.json
+++ b/qa-core/package.json
@@ -25,7 +25,8 @@
     "moduleNameMapper": {
       "@budibase/types": "<rootDir>/../packages/types/src",
       "@budibase/server": "<rootDir>/../packages/server/src",
-      "@budibase/backend-core": "<rootDir>/../packages/backend-core/src"
+      "@budibase/backend-core": "<rootDir>/../packages/backend-core/src",
+      "@budibase/backend-core/(.*)": "<rootDir>/../packages/backend-core/$1"
     },
     "setupFiles": [
       "./scripts/jestSetup.js"
@@ -51,6 +52,7 @@
   },
   "dependencies": {
     "@budibase/backend-core": "^2.0.5",
+    "form-data": "^4.0.0",
     "node-fetch": "2"
   }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/qa-core/scripts/jestSetup.js b/qa-core/scripts/jestSetup.js
index 8254fd6d34..77565783c3 100644
--- a/qa-core/scripts/jestSetup.js
+++ b/qa-core/scripts/jestSetup.js
@@ -15,3 +15,5 @@ tk.freeze(MOCK_DATE)
 if (!process.env.DEBUG) {
   global.console.log = jest.fn() // console.log are ignored in tests
 }
+
+jest.setTimeout(10000)
diff --git a/qa-core/src/config/internal-api/TestConfiguration/applications.ts b/qa-core/src/config/internal-api/TestConfiguration/applications.ts
index afee5d707a..10e4a6657b 100644
--- a/qa-core/src/config/internal-api/TestConfiguration/applications.ts
+++ b/qa-core/src/config/internal-api/TestConfiguration/applications.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 import {
   Application,
 } from "@budibase/server/api/controllers/public/mapping/types"
+import { App } from "@budibase/types"
 import { Response } from "node-fetch"
 import InternalAPIClient from "./InternalAPIClient"
+import FormData from "form-data"
 
 export default class AppApi {
   api: InternalAPIClient
@@ -17,9 +19,27 @@ export default class AppApi {
     return [response, json]
   }
 
+  async canRender(): Promise<[Response, boolean]> {
+    const response = await this.api.get("/routing/client")
+    const json = await response.json()
+    return [response, Object.keys(json.routes).length > 0]
+  }
+
+  async getAppPackage(appId: string): Promise<[Response, any]> {
+    const response = await this.api.get(`/applications/${appId}/appPackage`)
+    const json = await response.json()
+    return [response, json]
+  }
+
+  async publish(): Promise<[Response, string]> {
+    const response = await this.api.post("/deploy")
+    const json = await response.json()
+    return [response, json]
+  }
+
   async create(
     body: any
-  ): Promise<[Response, Application]> {
+  ): Promise<[Response, Partial<App>]> {
     const response = await this.api.post(`/applications`, { body })
     const json = await response.json()
     return [response, json]
diff --git a/qa-core/src/config/internal-api/TestConfiguration/index.ts b/qa-core/src/config/internal-api/TestConfiguration/index.ts
index 69c7e8df96..b433fd98ea 100644
--- a/qa-core/src/config/internal-api/TestConfiguration/index.ts
+++ b/qa-core/src/config/internal-api/TestConfiguration/index.ts
@@ -13,9 +13,12 @@ export default class TestConfiguration<T> {
     this.context = <T>{}
   }
 
-  async beforeAll() {}
+  async beforeAll() {
+    await this.auth.login()
+  }
 
   async afterAll() {
     this.context = <T>{}
+    await this.auth.logout()
   }
 }
diff --git a/qa-core/src/tests/internal-api/applications/create.spec.ts b/qa-core/src/tests/internal-api/applications/create.spec.ts
index a11640153c..81d43d9c91 100644
--- a/qa-core/src/tests/internal-api/applications/create.spec.ts
+++ b/qa-core/src/tests/internal-api/applications/create.spec.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 import TestConfiguration from "../../../config/internal-api/TestConfiguration"
 import { Application } from "@budibase/server/api/controllers/public/mapping/types"
+import { db } from "@budibase/backend-core"
 import InternalAPIClient from "../../../config/internal-api/TestConfiguration/InternalAPIClient"
 import generateApp from "../../../config/internal-api/fixtures/applications"
+import generator from "../../../config/generator"
 
 describe("Internal API - /applications endpoints", () => {
   const api = new InternalAPIClient()
@@ -9,18 +11,22 @@ describe("Internal API - /applications endpoints", () => {
 
   beforeAll(async () => {
     await config.beforeAll()
-    await config.auth.login()
   })
 
   afterAll(async () => {
     await config.afterAll()
-    await config.auth.logout()
   })
 
-  it("POST - Can login", async () => {
-    const [response] = await config.auth.login()
-    expect(response).toHaveStatusCode(200)
-  })
+  async function createAppFromTemplate() {
+    return config.applications.create({
+      name: generator.word(),
+      url: `/${generator.word()}`,
+      useTemplate: "true",
+      templateName: "Near Miss Register",
+      templateKey: "app/near-miss-register",
+      templateFile: undefined
+    })
+  }
 
   it("GET - fetch applications", async () => {
     await config.applications.create({
@@ -29,7 +35,7 @@ describe("Internal API - /applications endpoints", () => {
     })
     const [response, apps] = await config.applications.fetch()
     expect(response).toHaveStatusCode(200)
-    expect(apps.length).toBeGreaterThan(1)
+    expect(apps.length).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(1)
   })
 
   it("POST - Create an application", async () => {
@@ -37,4 +43,44 @@ describe("Internal API - /applications endpoints", () => {
     expect(response).toHaveStatusCode(200)
     expect(app._id).toBeDefined()
   })
+
+  it("POST - Publish application", async () => {
+    // create app
+    const [response, app] = await config.applications.create(generateApp())
+    expect(response).toHaveStatusCode(200)
+    expect(app.appId).toBeDefined()
+
+    // publish app
+    config.applications.api.appId = app.appId
+    const [publishResponse, publish] = await config.applications.publish()
+    expect(publishResponse).toHaveStatusCode(200)
+    expect(publish).toEqual({
+      _id: expect.any(String),
+      appUrl: app.url,
+      status: "SUCCESS"
+    })
+  })
+
+  it("POST - Create an application from a template, publish and check it renders", async () => {
+    // create the app
+    const appName = generator.word()
+    const [response, app] = await createAppFromTemplate()
+    expect(response).toHaveStatusCode(200)
+    expect(app.appId).toBeDefined()
+    config.applications.api.appId = app.appId
+
+    // check preview renders
+    const [previewResponse, previewRenders] = await config.applications.canRender()
+    expect(previewResponse).toHaveStatusCode(200)
+    expect(previewRenders).toBe(true)
+
+    // publish app
+    await config.applications.publish()
+
+    // check published app renders
+    config.applications.api.appId = db.getProdAppID(app.appId)
+    const [publishedAppResponse, publishedAppRenders] = await config.applications.canRender()
+    expect(publishedAppRenders).toBe(true)
+  })
+
 })
diff --git a/qa-core/tsconfig.json b/qa-core/tsconfig.json
index 028b4457f9..8cd0c30d46 100644
--- a/qa-core/tsconfig.json
+++ b/qa-core/tsconfig.json
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@
     "skipLibCheck": true,
     "paths": {
       "@budibase/types": ["../packages/types/src"],
-      "@budibase/backend-core": ["../packages/backend-core"],
+      "@budibase/backend-core": ["../packages/backend-core/src"],
+      "@budibase/backend-core/*": ["../packages/backend-core/*"],
       "@budibase/server/*": ["../packages/server/src/*"],
     }
   },
@@ -23,6 +24,7 @@
   },
   "references": [
     { "path": "../packages/types" },
+    { "path": "../packages/backend-core" },
   ],
   "include": [
     "src/**/*",
diff --git a/qa-core/yarn.lock b/qa-core/yarn.lock
index 71c3d3efe4..5b86c6084f 100644
--- a/qa-core/yarn.lock
+++ b/qa-core/yarn.lock
@@ -1839,6 +1839,15 @@ form-data@^3.0.0:
     combined-stream "^1.0.8"
     mime-types "^2.1.12"
 
+form-data@^4.0.0:
+  version "4.0.0"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/form-data/-/form-data-4.0.0.tgz#93919daeaf361ee529584b9b31664dc12c9fa452"
+  integrity sha512-ETEklSGi5t0QMZuiXoA/Q6vcnxcLQP5vdugSpuAyi6SVGi2clPPp+xgEhuMaHC+zGgn31Kd235W35f7Hykkaww==
+  dependencies:
+    asynckit "^0.4.0"
+    combined-stream "^1.0.8"
+    mime-types "^2.1.12"
+
 form-data@~2.3.2:
   version "2.3.3"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/form-data/-/form-data-2.3.3.tgz#dcce52c05f644f298c6a7ab936bd724ceffbf3a6"