diff --git a/glareclient/shell.py b/glareclient/shell.py
index 4e136bb..756bd9b 100644
--- a/glareclient/shell.py
+++ b/glareclient/shell.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Copyright 2015 - StackStorm, Inc.
+# Copyright 2017 - Nokia Networks
 #
 #    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 #    you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -261,17 +261,28 @@ class GlareShell(app.App):
         self._clear_shell_commands()
         self._set_shell_commands(self._get_commands())
 
-        do_help = ('help' in argv) or ('-h' in argv) or not argv
+        # bash-completion and help messages should not require client creation
+        need_client = not (
+            ('bash-completion' in argv) or
+            ('help' in argv) or
+            ('-h' in argv) or
+            ('--help' in argv) or
+            not argv)
 
-        # Set default for auth_url if not supplied. The default is not
-        # set at the parser to support use cases where auth is not enabled.
-        # An example use case would be a developer's environment.
+        self.client = self._create_client() if need_client else None
 
-        # bash-completion should not require authentification.
-        if do_help or ('bash-completion' in argv):
-            self.options.auth_url = None
+        # Adding client_manager variable to make glare client work with
+        # unified OpenStack client.
+        ClientManager = type(
+            'ClientManager',
+            (object,),
+            dict(artifact=self.client)
+        )
 
-        self.client = client.Client(
+        self.client_manager = ClientManager()
+
+    def _create_client(self):
+        return client.Client(
             endpoint=self.options.glare_url,
             auth_token=self.options.auth_token,
             keycloak_auth_url=self.options.keycloak_auth_url,
@@ -285,16 +296,6 @@ class GlareShell(app.App):
             insecure=self.options.insecure
         )
 
-        # Adding client_manager variable to make glare client work with
-        # unified OpenStack client.
-        ClientManager = type(
-            'ClientManager',
-            (object,),
-            dict(artifact=self.client)
-        )
-
-        self.client_manager = ClientManager()
-
     def _set_shell_commands(self, cmds_dict):
         for k, v in cmds_dict.items():
             self.command_manager.add_command(k, v)
diff --git a/glareclient/tests/unit/test_shell.py b/glareclient/tests/unit/test_shell.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ecca37b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/glareclient/tests/unit/test_shell.py
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+# Copyright 2015 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
+#
+#    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+#    you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+#    You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#        http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+#    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+#    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+#    WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+#    See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+#    limitations under the License.
+
+import mock
+import os
+import sys
+
+import six
+import testtools
+
+from glareclient import shell
+
+
+class TestShell(testtools.TestCase):
+
+    def shell(self, argstr):
+        orig = (sys.stdout, sys.stderr)
+        clean_env = {}
+        _old_env, os.environ = os.environ, clean_env.copy()
+
+        try:
+            sys.stdout = six.moves.cStringIO()
+            sys.stderr = six.moves.cStringIO()
+            _shell = shell.GlareShell()
+            _shell.run(argstr.split())
+        except SystemExit:
+            exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback = sys.exc_info()
+            self.assertEqual(0, exc_value.code)
+        finally:
+            stdout = sys.stdout.getvalue()
+            stderr = sys.stderr.getvalue()
+            sys.stdout.close()
+            sys.stderr.close()
+            sys.stdout, sys.stderr = orig
+            os.environ = _old_env
+
+        return stdout, stderr
+
+    def test_help(self):
+        """Test that client is not created for help and bash complete"""
+        for command in ('-h',
+                        '--help',
+                        'help',
+                        'help workbook-list',
+                        'bash-completion'):
+            with mock.patch('glareclient.client.Client') as client_mock:
+                self.shell(command)
+                self.assertFalse(client_mock.called)