diff --git a/qrenderdoc/Code/pyrenderdoc/PythonContext.cpp b/qrenderdoc/Code/pyrenderdoc/PythonContext.cpp
index 1b59dd556..b06249b41 100644
--- a/qrenderdoc/Code/pyrenderdoc/PythonContext.cpp
+++ b/qrenderdoc/Code/pyrenderdoc/PythonContext.cpp
@@ -314,6 +314,28 @@ void PythonContext::GlobalInit()
   }
 #endif
 
+#if RENDERDOC_STABLE_BUILD == 0
+  // if we're running in the git checkout and we can find the test scripts, add that location to the
+  // path
+  {
+    QDir bin = QFileInfo(QCoreApplication::applicationFilePath()).absoluteDir();
+
+    QString testpath = QDir::cleanPath(bin.absoluteFilePath(lit("../../util/test")));
+
+    if(QDir(testpath).exists(lit("run_tests.py")))
+    {
+      PyObject *syspath = PyObject_GetAttrString(sysobj, "path");
+
+      PyObject *str = PyUnicode_FromString(testpath.toUtf8().data());
+
+      PyList_Append(syspath, str);
+
+      Py_DecRef(str);
+      Py_DecRef(syspath);
+    }
+  }
+#endif
+
 // set up PySide
 #if PYSIDE2_ENABLED
   {
diff --git a/util/test/tests/Iter_Test.py b/util/test/tests/Iter_Test.py
index 7ee2848b6..85f6b9e01 100644
--- a/util/test/tests/Iter_Test.py
+++ b/util/test/tests/Iter_Test.py
@@ -188,13 +188,7 @@ class Iter_Test(rdtest.TestCase):
 
             self.controller.SetFrameEvent(draw.eventId, True)
 
-    def iter_test(self, path):
-        try:
-            self.controller = rdtest.open_capture(path)
-        except RuntimeError as err:
-            rdtest.log.print("Skipping. Can't open {}: {}".format(path, err))
-            return
-
+    def iter_test(self):
         # Handy tweaks when running locally to disable certain things
 
         action_chance = 0.1     # Chance of doing anything at all
@@ -239,8 +233,6 @@ class Iter_Test(rdtest.TestCase):
 
             draw = draw.next
 
-        self.controller.Shutdown()
-
     def run(self):
         dir_path = self.get_ref_path('', extra=True)
 
@@ -253,8 +245,22 @@ class Iter_Test(rdtest.TestCase):
 
             rdtest.log.print('Iterating {}'.format(file.name))
 
-            self.iter_test(file.path)
+            try:
+                self.controller = rdtest.open_capture(file.path)
+            except RuntimeError as err:
+                rdtest.log.print("Skipping. Can't open {}: {}".format(file.path, err))
+                continue
+
+            self.iter_test()
+
+            self.controller.Shutdown()
 
             rdtest.log.success("Iterated {}".format(file.name))
 
         rdtest.log.success("Iterated all files")
+
+    # Useful for calling from within the UI
+    def run_external(self, controller: rd.ReplayController):
+        self.controller = controller
+
+        self.iter_test()