diff --git a/src/common/libkvs/test/kvs_dir.c b/src/common/libkvs/test/kvs_dir.c
index ab67612b4253..ece3f40ee8ed 100644
--- a/src/common/libkvs/test/kvs_dir.c
+++ b/src/common/libkvs/test/kvs_dir.c
@@ -39,6 +39,17 @@ void test_empty (void)
     ok (dir == NULL && errno == EINVAL,
         "kvsdir_create with empty JSON objects fails with EINVAL");
 
+    errno = 0;
+    dir = kvsdir_create (NULL, NULL, "foo", "foo");
+    ok (dir == NULL && errno == EINVAL,
+        "kvsdir_create with bad JSON objects fails with EINVAL");
+
+    errno = 0;
+    dir = kvsdir_create (NULL, NULL, "foo",
+                         "{\"data\":\"MQA=\",\"type\":\"FOO\",\"ver\":1}");
+    ok (dir == NULL && errno == EINVAL,
+        "kvsdir_create with non-dir treeobj fails with EINVAL");
+
     if (!(o = treeobj_create_dir ()))
         BAIL_OUT ("treeobj_create_dir failed");
     if (!(s = json_dumps (o, JSON_COMPACT)))