diff --git a/src/sourmash/sig/__init__.py b/src/sourmash/sig/__init__.py
index c3f696f8fd..0fafe39246 100644
--- a/src/sourmash/sig/__init__.py
+++ b/src/sourmash/sig/__init__.py
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-from .__main__ import main
+from .__main__ import *         # bring all functions into top-level
 from . import grep
diff --git a/tests/test_cmd_signature.py b/tests/test_cmd_signature.py
index 14f4874860..8241c8579f 100644
--- a/tests/test_cmd_signature.py
+++ b/tests/test_cmd_signature.py
@@ -45,6 +45,15 @@ def test_run_sourmash_sig_cmd():
     assert status != 0                    # no args provided, ok ;)
 
 
+def test_run_cat_via_parse_args():
+    # run a command ('sourmash.sig.cat') with args constructed via parse_args
+    import sourmash.sig, sourmash.cli
+    sig47 = utils.get_test_data('47.fa.sig')
+
+    args = sourmash.cli.parse_args(['sig', 'cat', sig47])
+    sourmash.sig.cat(args)
+
+
 def test_sig_merge_1_use_full_signature_in_cmd(runtmp):
     c = runtmp