diff --git a/src/hal/hal_lib.c b/src/hal/hal_lib.c
index 32e607c0c63..a113454c53c 100644
--- a/src/hal/hal_lib.c
+++ b/src/hal/hal_lib.c
@@ -3984,7 +3984,7 @@ int hal_stream_create(hal_stream_t *stream, int comp, int key, int depth, const
     int result = 0;
     hal_type_t type[HAL_STREAM_MAX_PINS];
     result = halpr_parse_types(type, typestring);
-    if(result < 0) return result;
+    if(!result) return -EINVAL;
     int pin_count = result;
 
     size_t size = sizeof(struct hal_stream_shm) + sizeof(union hal_stream_data) * depth * (1+pin_count);
diff --git a/tests/hal-stream/README b/tests/hal-stream/README
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8798555629b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/hal-stream/README
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Creating a hal stream should fail if the cfg string is invalid.
diff --git a/tests/hal-stream/expected b/tests/hal-stream/expected
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..2ae28399f5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/hal-stream/expected
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+pass
diff --git a/tests/hal-stream/test.hal b/tests/hal-stream/test.hal
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a0055ff2cdd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/hal-stream/test.hal
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+loadusr -w ./test.py
diff --git a/tests/hal-stream/test.py b/tests/hal-stream/test.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..e96f0f10fa8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/hal-stream/test.py
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+import hal
+
+c = hal.component("stream_test")
+try:
+    writer = hal.stream(c, hal.streamer_base, 10, "xx")
+except:
+    pass
+else:
+    assert False, "hal.stream should fail with invalid cfg arg"
+
+c.ready()
+print("pass")