diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index 2e0867a..1bcd387 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -35,17 +35,15 @@ function getFakerSchema(schemaName) {
  * @param {{version?: string, count?: number}} [options]
  * @returns {Array<Extract<import('@comapeo/schema').MapeoDoc, { schemaName: TSchemaName }>>}
  */
-export function generate(schemaName, { count } = {}) {
+export function generate(schemaName, { count = 0 } = {}) {
   isValidSchemaName(schemaName)
 
   const schema = getFakerSchema(schemaName)
 
-  const numberToGenerate = count || 1
-
   /** @type {Array<Extract<import('@comapeo/schema').MapeoDoc, { schemaName: TSchemaName }>>} */
   const result = []
 
-  for (let i = 0; i < numberToGenerate; i++) {
+  for (let i = 0; i < count; i++) {
     result.push(
       /** @type {Extract<import('@comapeo/schema').MapeoDoc, { schemaName: TSchemaName }>} */ (
         JSONSchemaFaker.generate(schema)
diff --git a/test/generate.test.js b/test/generate.test.js
index 6954244..08bdb91 100644
--- a/test/generate.test.js
+++ b/test/generate.test.js
@@ -30,3 +30,11 @@ test('generates valid data', { concurrency: true }, async (t) => {
     }
   })
 })
+
+test('passing count=0 returns an empty array', () => {
+  const schemaNames = Object.keys(listSchemas())
+
+  for (const schemaName of schemaNames) {
+    assert.deepEqual(generate(schemaName, { count: 0 }), [])
+  }
+})