diff --git a/tests/test_recipe_local.py b/tests/test_recipe_local.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d8dce2a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_recipe_local.py
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+"""Recipe-local test shipped by the recipe repo (D4). Runs against the LIVE deployment via the
+cc-ci contract env vars CCCI_BASE_URL / CCCI_APP_DOMAIN."""
+import os, ssl, urllib.request
+
+
+def test_recipe_local_serves_content():
+    base = os.environ["CCCI_BASE_URL"]
+    ctx = ssl.create_default_context(); ctx.check_hostname = False; ctx.verify_mode = ssl.CERT_NONE
+    with urllib.request.urlopen(base, timeout=15, context=ctx) as r:
+        body = r.read().decode(errors="replace")
+    assert r.status == 200
+    assert "nginx" in body.lower(), "recipe-local: expected the served nginx page"