diff --git a/.github/workflows/llmsecops-cicd.llm.yml b/.github/workflows/llmsecops-cicd.llm.yml
index 4c0b6b851..d9c479fd8 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/llmsecops-cicd.llm.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/llmsecops-cicd.llm.yml
@@ -43,6 +43,11 @@ jobs:
       run: |
         curl -i http://localhost:9999/
 
+        echo "Making API request..."
+        curl -X POST -i http://localhost:9999/api/conversations \
+            -d '{ "prompt": "describe a random planet in our solar system in 10 words or less" }' \
+            -H "Content-Type: application/json" || exit 1
+
         garak -v \
           --config ${{ github.workspace }}/src/tools/garak.config.yml \
           --generator_option_file ${{ github.workspace }}/src/tools/garak.rest.llm.json \
diff --git a/src/api/controller.py b/src/api/controller.py
index 75d4a491d..3ff759964 100644
--- a/src/api/controller.py
+++ b/src/api/controller.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ app = Flask(__name__)
 
 @app.route('/', methods=['GET'])
 def health_check():
-    return "Server is running", 200
+    return f"Server is running\n", 200
 
 @app.route('/api/conversations', methods=['POST'])
 def get_llm_response():
@@ -22,5 +22,5 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
     print('test')
     logger.debug('running...')
 
-    # Production mode with Waitress:
+    # TODO set up port # as env var
     serve(app, host='0.0.0.0', port=9999)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/llm/llm.py b/src/llm/llm.py
index 0bdf80781..c78ca1190 100644
--- a/src/llm/llm.py
+++ b/src/llm/llm.py
@@ -91,4 +91,5 @@ class Phi3LanguageModel:
             return response
         except Exception as e:
             print(f"Failed: {e}")
+            return e