diff --git a/commands/templates.go b/commands/templates.go
index 1b67c53..1598f47 100644
--- a/commands/templates.go
+++ b/commands/templates.go
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+// TODO consider making this another package
 package commands
 
 import (
@@ -5,6 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"bytes"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
+	"io"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
@@ -56,7 +58,7 @@ func render(sourcePath string) (string, string, error) {
 	return html, targetPath, nil
 }
 
-func extractFrontMatter(file *os.File) ([]byte, map[string]interface{}, error) {
+func extractFrontMatter(file io.Reader) ([]byte, map[string]interface{}, error) {
 	const FM_SEPARATOR = "---"
 
 	var outContent, yamlContent []byte
@@ -91,7 +93,7 @@ func extractFrontMatter(file *os.File) ([]byte, map[string]interface{}, error) {
 	if len(yamlContent) != 0 {
 		err := yaml.Unmarshal([]byte(yamlContent), &frontMatter)
 		if err != nil {
-			return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid yaml: ", err)
+			return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid yaml: %s", err)
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/commands/templates_test.go b/commands/templates_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2dab12a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/commands/templates_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+package commands
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func TestExtractFrontMatter(t *testing.T) {
+	input := `---
+title: my new post
+subtitle: a blog post
+tags: ["software", "web"]
+---
+<p>Hello World!</p>`
+
+	outContent, yaml, err := extractFrontMatter(strings.NewReader(input))
+	assertEqual(t, err, nil)
+	assertEqual(t, string(outContent), "<p>Hello World!</p>")
+	assertEqual(t, yaml["title"], "my new post")
+	assertEqual(t, yaml["subtitle"], "a blog post")
+	assertEqual(t, yaml["tags"].([]interface{})[0], "software")
+	assertEqual(t, yaml["tags"].([]interface{})[1], "web")
+}
+
+func TestInvalidFrontMatterDelimiter(t *testing.T) {
+	// TODO
+}
+
+func TestInvalidFrontMatterYaml(t *testing.T) {
+	// TODO
+}
+
+func TestFrontMatterNotAtTop(t *testing.T) {
+	// TODO
+}
+
+func TestRenderHtml(t *testing.T) {
+	// TODO
+}
+
+func TestRenderOrg(t *testing.T) {
+	// TODO
+}
+
+// TODO move to assert package
+func assertEqual(t *testing.T, a interface{}, b interface{}) {
+	if a != b {
+		t.Fatalf("%s != %s", a, b)
+	}
+}