diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 6e37981..51333ee 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 install:
 	cp  n2w_add_uuid.py /usr/local/bin
-	sed "s/N2W_COMMIT = \"\"/N2W_COMMIT = \"$$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)\"/" notes2web.py > /usr/local/bin/notes2web.py
+	sed "s/N2W_COMMIT = \"dev\"/N2W_COMMIT = \"$$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)\"/" notes2web.py > /usr/local/bin/notes2web.py
 	mkdir -p /opt/notes2web
 	cp -r templates js css /opt/notes2web
 	pip3 install -r requirements.txt
diff --git a/fileproperties.py b/fileproperties.py
index effa137..118780f 100644
--- a/fileproperties.py
+++ b/fileproperties.py
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ class FileMap:
             #print(f"FileMap._get_index_entries({filepath=}): {entry=}")
 
 
-        entries.sort(key=lambda entry: str(entry['title']).lower())
+        entries.sort(key=lambda entry: str(entry.get('title', '')).lower())
         entries.sort(key=lambda entry: entry['is_dir'], reverse=True)
 
         return entries
@@ -160,6 +160,10 @@ class FileMap:
 
 
     def to_list(self):
+        return [ val for _, val in self._map.items() ]
+
+
+    def to_search_data(self):
         """
         returns list of every file in map
         """
diff --git a/notes2web.py b/notes2web.py
index e1784bd..505a9fe 100755
--- a/notes2web.py
+++ b/notes2web.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import requests
 from fileproperties import FileMap
 
 
-N2W_COMMIT = ""
+N2W_COMMIT = "dev"
 
 PANDOC_SERVER_URL = os.getenv("PANDOC_SERVER_URL", r"http://localhost:3030/")
 PANDOC_TIMEOUT = int(os.getenv("PANDOC_TIMEOUT", "120"))
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ JINJA_ENV = jinja2.Environment(
 JINJA_TEMPLATES = {}
 JINJA_TEMPLATE_TEXTARTICLE = JINJA_ENV.get_template("textarticle.html")
 JINJA_TEMPLATE_HOME_INDEX = JINJA_ENV.get_template("home_index.html")
-JINJA_TEMPLATE_DIRECTORY_INDEX = JINJA_ENV.get_template("index.html")
+JINJA_TEMPLATE_INDEX = JINJA_ENV.get_template("index.html")
 JINJA_TEMPLATE_ARTICLE = JINJA_ENV.get_template("article.html")
 
 
@@ -172,43 +172,71 @@ def render_markdown(content):
 
 
 
-def process_home_index(output_dir, search_data, notes_git_head_sha1=None):
+def process_home_index(args, notes_git_head_sha1=None):
     """
     create home index.html in output_dir
     """
+
+    post = {
+            'title': 'gronk',
+            'content': ''
+            }
+    custom_content_file = args.notes.joinpath('index.md')
+    print(f'{custom_content_file=}')
+    if custom_content_file.is_file():
+        fmpost = frontmatter.loads(custom_content_file.read_text()).to_dict()
+        for key, val in fmpost.items():
+            post[key] = val
+
+    post['content'] = render_markdown(post['content'])
+
     html = JINJA_TEMPLATE_HOME_INDEX.render(
             n2w_commit = N2W_COMMIT,
-            search_data=search_data,
-            notes_git_head_sha1=notes_git_head_sha1,
+            search_data = FILEMAP.to_search_data(),
+            notes_git_head_sha1 = notes_git_head_sha1,
+            post=post
             )
-    with open(output_dir.joinpath('index.html'), 'w+', encoding='utf-8') as file_pointer:
-        file_pointer.write(html)
+
+    args.output_dir.joinpath('index.html').write_text(html)
 
 
-def generate_variable_browser(output_dir, posts, variable_name) :
+def generate_tag_browser(output_dir) :
     """
     generate a directory that lets you groub by and browse by any given tag. e.g. tags, authors
     """
-    groups = {}
+    tags = {}
 
-    for key, post in posts.iter():
-        group_val = post.get(variable_name, None)
-        if group_val is None:
+    for post in FILEMAP.to_list():
+        post['path'] = post['dst_path']['web']
+
+        if 'tags' not in post.keys():
             continue
 
-        if group_val not in groups.keys():
-            groups[group_val] = []
+        for tag in post['tags']:
+            if tag not in tags.keys():
+                tags[tag] = []
 
-        groups[group_val].append(post)
+            tags[tag].append(post)
 
-    for group_val, index_entries in groups.iter():
-        post = {
-                'index_entries': index_entries,
-                'title': group_val,
-                }
 
-    # TODO finish writing function, write page to disk
+    for tag, index_entries in tags.items():
+        output_file = output_dir.joinpath(tag, 'index.html')
+        output_file.parent.mkdir(exist_ok=True, parents=True)
+        output_file.write_text(JINJA_TEMPLATE_INDEX.render(
+                automatic_index=True,
+                search_bar=True,
+                title=tag,
+                index_entries = index_entries
+                ))
 
+    output_file = output_dir.joinpath('index.html')
+    output_file.parent.mkdir(exist_ok=True, parents=True)
+    output_file.write_text(JINJA_TEMPLATE_INDEX.render(
+            automatic_index=True,
+            search_bar=True,
+            title='tags',
+            index_entries = [{ 'path': tag, 'title': tag, 'is_dir': False, } for tag in tags.keys()]
+            ))
 
 
 def main(args):
@@ -244,9 +272,8 @@ def main(args):
         root_properties = FILEMAP.get(root)
         root_properties['dst_path']['raw'].mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
 
-        pprint.pprint(root_properties)
-        print(JINJA_TEMPLATE_DIRECTORY_INDEX)
-        html = JINJA_TEMPLATE_DIRECTORY_INDEX.render(**root_properties)
+        #pprint.pprint(root_properties)
+        html = JINJA_TEMPLATE_INDEX.render(**root_properties)
         with open(root_properties['dst_path']['raw'].joinpath('index.html'), 'w+', encoding='utf-8') as file_pointer:
             file_pointer.write(html)
 
@@ -254,20 +281,18 @@ def main(args):
         for file in files:
             render_file(root.joinpath(file))
 
-
-    process_home_index(args.output_dir, search_data=FILEMAP.to_list())
+    process_home_index(args)
 
     # copy styling and js scripts necessary for function
     shutil.copytree(CSS_DIR, args.output_dir.joinpath('css'), dirs_exist_ok=True)
     shutil.copytree(JS_DIR, args.output_dir.joinpath('js'), dirs_exist_ok=True)
 
-
+    generate_tag_browser(args.output_dir.joinpath('tags'))
 
     return 0
 
 
 # TODO implement useful logging and debug printing
-# TODO build tag/metadata pages
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     try:
diff --git a/readme.md b/readme.md
index 2426864..18136fb 100644
--- a/readme.md
+++ b/readme.md
@@ -81,6 +81,19 @@ a file called `styles.css`.
 To add additional styling, the default styling will attempt to import `styles.css` from the root of the notes
 directory.
 
+To add additional content to the homepage, create a file called `index.md` at the top level of your notes directory.
+To set the HTML `title` tag, set `title` in the frontmatter of `index.md`:
+
+```markdown
+---
+title: "alv's notes"
+---
+
+# alv's notes
+
+these notes are probably wrong
+```
+
 ## CLI Usage
 
 ```
diff --git a/templates/article.html b/templates/article.html
index dd49903..c4d0f96 100644
--- a/templates/article.html
+++ b/templates/article.html
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@
 
 		<p class="smallText metadata"> tags: [
 			{% for tag in tags %}
-			<a href="/.tags/{{ tag }}.html">{{ tag }}</a>{% if loop.nextitem %},{% endif %}
+			<a href="/tags/{{ tag }}">{{ tag }}</a>{% if loop.nextitem %},{% endif %}
 			{% endfor %}
 		]</p>
 		<p class="smallText metadata">
diff --git a/templates/home_index.html b/templates/home_index.html
index 46d75ce..a21e742 100644
--- a/templates/home_index.html
+++ b/templates/home_index.html
@@ -3,13 +3,12 @@
 <meta charset="utf-8"> 
 <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Open+Sans&display=swap" />
 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/styles.css" />
-<title>{{ title }}</title>
+<title>{{ post['content'] }}</title>
 </head>
 <body>
 <div id="content">
-<h1> {{ h1title }}</>
+{{ post['content']|safe }}
 <p>
-These are my personal notes. Correctness is not guaranteed.
 Browse <a href="/notes">here</a> or by tag <a href="/tags">here</a>.
 </p>