diff --git a/lib/galaxy_test/api/test_workflows.py b/lib/galaxy_test/api/test_workflows.py
index 89129d1dcb68..76ba3674e20f 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy_test/api/test_workflows.py
+++ b/lib/galaxy_test/api/test_workflows.py
@@ -3087,7 +3087,9 @@ def test_export_invocation_bco(self):
         with self.dataset_populator.test_history() as history_id:
             summary = self._run_workflow(WORKFLOW_SIMPLE, test_data={"input1": "hello world"}, history_id=history_id)
             invocation_id = summary.invocation_id
-            bco = self.workflow_populator.download_invocation_to_store(invocation_id, extension="bco.json")
+            bco_path = self.workflow_populator.download_invocation_to_store(invocation_id, extension="bco.json")
+            with open(bco_path) as f:
+                bco = json.load(f)
             self.workflow_populator.validate_biocompute_object(bco)
             assert bco["provenance_domain"]["name"] == "Simple Workflow"