diff --git a/.github/workflows/mpy_format.yml b/.github/workflows/mpy_format.yml
index b51110db67..ab668c1cb5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/mpy_format.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/mpy_format.yml
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ on:
     paths:
       - '.github/workflows/*.yml'
       - 'examples/**'
+      - 'mpy-cross/**'
+      - 'py/**'
       - 'tests/**'
       - 'tools/**'
 
@@ -22,3 +24,5 @@ jobs:
       run: tools/ci.sh mpy_format_setup
     - name: Test mpy-tool.py
       run: tools/ci.sh mpy_format_test
+    - name: Test mpy-cross debug emitter
+      run: tools/ci.sh mpy_cross_debug_emitter
diff --git a/tools/ci.sh b/tools/ci.sh
index fa7a529b21..e34940f758 100755
--- a/tools/ci.sh
+++ b/tools/ci.sh
@@ -173,6 +173,15 @@ function ci_mpy_format_test {
     $micropython ./tools/mpy-tool.py -x -d examples/natmod/features1/features1.mpy
 }
 
+function ci_mpy_cross_debug_emitter {
+    make ${MAKEOPTS} -C mpy-cross
+    mpy_cross=./mpy-cross/build/mpy-cross
+
+    # Make sure the debug emitter does not crash or fail for simple files
+    $mpy_cross -X emit=native -march=debug ./tests/basics/0prelim.py | \
+	    grep -E "ENTRY|EXIT" | wc -l | grep "^2$"
+}
+
 ########################################################################################
 # ports/cc3200