diff --git a/Package.swift b/Package.swift
index 575d3cdc..1c8d3c07 100644
--- a/Package.swift
+++ b/Package.swift
@@ -34,13 +34,17 @@ let package = Package(
         ),
         .testTarget(
             name: "IntegrationTests",
-            dependencies: ["Valkey"]
+            dependencies: [
+                "Valkey",
+            ]
         ),
         .testTarget(
             name: "ValkeyTests",
             dependencies: [
                 "Valkey",
                 .product(name: "NIOTestUtils", package: "swift-nio"),
+                .product(name: "Logging", package: "swift-log"),
+                .product(name: "NIOEmbedded", package: "swift-nio"),
             ]
         ),
     ]
diff --git a/Sources/Valkey/Connection/ValkeyConnection.swift b/Sources/Valkey/Connection/ValkeyConnection.swift
index fa0cd06b..658cbc37 100644
--- a/Sources/Valkey/Connection/ValkeyConnection.swift
+++ b/Sources/Valkey/Connection/ValkeyConnection.swift
@@ -191,15 +191,7 @@ public final class ValkeyConnection: Sendable {
 
         let connect = bootstrap.channelInitializer { channel in
             do {
-                let sync = channel.pipeline.syncOperations
-                if case .enable(let sslContext, let tlsServerName) = configuration.tls.base {
-                    try sync.addHandler(NIOSSLClientHandler(context: sslContext, serverHostname: tlsServerName))
-                }
-                let valkeyChannelHandler = ValkeyChannelHandler(
-                    eventLoop: channel.eventLoop,
-                    logger: logger
-                )
-                try sync.addHandler(valkeyChannelHandler)
+                try self._setupChannel(channel, configuration: configuration, logger: logger)
                 return eventLoop.makeSucceededVoidFuture()
             } catch {
                 return eventLoop.makeFailedFuture(error)
@@ -226,6 +218,36 @@ public final class ValkeyConnection: Sendable {
         }
     }
 
+    package static func setupChannel(_ channel: any Channel, configuration: ValkeyClientConfiguration, logger: Logger) async throws -> ValkeyConnection {
+        if !channel.eventLoop.inEventLoop {
+            return try await channel.eventLoop.submit {
+                let handler = try self._setupChannel(channel, configuration: configuration, logger: logger)
+                return ValkeyConnection(channel: channel, channelHandler: handler, configuration: configuration, logger: logger)
+            }.get()
+        }
+
+        let handler = try self._setupChannel(channel, configuration: configuration, logger: logger)
+        return ValkeyConnection(channel: channel, channelHandler: handler, configuration: configuration, logger: logger)
+    }
+
+    @discardableResult
+    private static func _setupChannel(_ channel: any Channel, configuration: ValkeyClientConfiguration, logger: Logger) throws -> ValkeyChannelHandler {
+        channel.eventLoop.assertInEventLoop()
+        let sync = channel.pipeline.syncOperations
+        switch configuration.tls.base {
+        case .enable(let sslContext, let tlsServerName):
+            try sync.addHandler(NIOSSLClientHandler(context: sslContext, serverHostname: tlsServerName))
+        case .disable:
+            break
+        }
+        let valkeyChannelHandler = ValkeyChannelHandler(
+            eventLoop: channel.eventLoop,
+            logger: logger
+        )
+        try sync.addHandler(valkeyChannelHandler)
+        return valkeyChannelHandler
+    }
+
     /// create a BSD sockets based bootstrap
     private static func createSocketsBootstrap(eventLoopGroup: EventLoopGroup) -> ClientBootstrap {
         ClientBootstrap(group: eventLoopGroup)
diff --git a/Tests/ValkeyTests/ValkeyConnectionTests.swift b/Tests/ValkeyTests/ValkeyConnectionTests.swift
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..64b10e73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Tests/ValkeyTests/ValkeyConnectionTests.swift
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+//===----------------------------------------------------------------------===//
+//
+// This source file is part of the swift-valkey open source project
+//
+// Copyright (c) 2025 Apple Inc. and the swift-valkey project authors
+// Licensed under Apache License v2.0
+//
+// See LICENSE.txt for license information
+// See CONTRIBUTORS.txt for the list of swift-valkey project authors
+//
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+//
+//===----------------------------------------------------------------------===//
+
+import Logging
+import NIOCore
+import NIOEmbedded
+import Testing
+import Valkey
+
+@Suite
+struct ConnectionTests {
+
+    @Test
+    func testConnectionCreationAndGET() async throws {
+        let channel = NIOAsyncTestingChannel()
+        let logger = Logger(label: "test")
+        let connection = try await ValkeyConnection.setupChannel(channel, configuration: .init(), logger: logger)
+
+        async let fooResult = connection.get(key: "foo")
+
+        let outbound = try await channel.waitForOutboundWrite(as: ByteBuffer.self)
+        #expect(outbound == ByteBuffer(string: "*2\r\n$3\r\nGET\r\n$3\r\nfoo\r\n"))
+
+        try await channel.writeInbound(ByteBuffer(string: "$3\r\nBar\r\n"))
+        #expect(try await fooResult == "Bar")
+    }
+}