diff --git a/control_plane/src/bin/neon_local.rs b/control_plane/src/bin/neon_local.rs
index f0c3b983f0..61b9445c6d 100644
--- a/control_plane/src/bin/neon_local.rs
+++ b/control_plane/src/bin/neon_local.rs
@@ -900,6 +900,7 @@ fn cli() -> Command {
     let stop_mode_arg = Arg::new("stop-mode")
         .short('m')
         .value_parser(["fast", "immediate"])
+        .default_value("fast")
         .help("If 'immediate', don't flush repository data at shutdown")
         .required(false)
         .value_name("stop-mode");
diff --git a/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py b/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py
index 3a3ee94425..b3e4809f24 100644
--- a/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py
+++ b/test_runner/fixtures/neon_fixtures.py
@@ -1742,6 +1742,12 @@ class NeonCli(AbstractNeonCli):
 
         return self.raw_cli(args, check_return_code=check_return_code)
 
+    def start(self, check_return_code=True) -> "subprocess.CompletedProcess[str]":
+        return self.raw_cli(["start"], check_return_code=check_return_code)
+
+    def stop(self, check_return_code=True) -> "subprocess.CompletedProcess[str]":
+        return self.raw_cli(["stop"], check_return_code=check_return_code)
+
 
 class WalCraft(AbstractNeonCli):
     """
diff --git a/test_runner/regress/test_neon_local_cli.py b/test_runner/regress/test_neon_local_cli.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6c7cdb6f7f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test_runner/regress/test_neon_local_cli.py
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+from fixtures.neon_fixtures import NeonEnvBuilder
+
+
+# Test that neon cli is able to start and stop all processes with the user defaults.
+# def test_neon_cli_basics(neon_simple_env: NeonEnv):
+def test_neon_cli_basics(neon_env_builder: NeonEnvBuilder):
+    env = neon_env_builder.init()
+
+    env.neon_cli.start()
+    env.neon_cli.stop()