diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 928867b..7e51934 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Package: ghqc
 Title: Manage QC via GitHub Issues using Shiny Apps
-Version: 0.3.3
+Version: 0.3.4
 Authors@R: c(
     person("Anne", "Zheng", email = "anne@a2-ai.com", role = c("aut")),
     person("Jenna", "Johnson", email = "jenna@a2-ai.com", role = c("aut")),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index bcb26df..aaffc9f 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+# ghqc 0.3.4
+
+- adds warning to checklist validation if checklist yamls lack a trailing newline
+
 # ghqc 0.3.3
 
 - refactors `setup_ghqc()` such that each interactive input is (y/N)
diff --git a/R/checklist_validation.R b/R/checklist_validation.R
index 11a80d4..b52c518 100644
--- a/R/checklist_validation.R
+++ b/R/checklist_validation.R
@@ -5,19 +5,27 @@ validate_checklists <- function(config_path = ghqc_config_path()) {
   lapply(checklist_ls, function(x) val_checklist(x))
 }
 
+checklist_has_trailing_newline <- function(file) {
+  content <- readChar(file, file.info(file)$size, useBytes = TRUE)
+  if (nchar(content) == 0) return(FALSE)  # empty file
+  return(substr(content, nchar(content), nchar(content)) == "\n")
+}
+
 #' @importFrom yaml yaml.load_file
 val_checklist <- function(checklist) {
   content <- tryCatch({
-    yaml::yaml.load_file(checklist)
-  }, error = function(e) {
+    yaml::yaml.load_file(checklist, readLines.warn = FALSE)
+  },
+  error = function(e) {
     NULL
   })
 
   if (is.null(content)) return(list(valid = FALSE, reason = "File is not a valid yaml format"))
-  if (length(content) == 0) return(list(valid = FALSE, reason = "File is blank")) #CASE 1: emply file
+  if (length(content) == 0) return(list(valid = FALSE, reason = "File is blank")) #CASE 1: empty file
   if (length(content) != 1) return(list(valid = FALSE, reason = "There are too many top level elements. The only top level should be the checklist title")) # CASE 2: Multiple top levels that create multiple lists when reading in the yaml
   if (!inherits(content, "list")) return(list(valid = FALSE, reason = "Only strings found. Use ':' for headers and '-' for checklist items")) # CASE 3: only a single. No top levels or elements
   if (any(sapply(content[[1]], function(x) class(x) != "character"))) return(list(valid = FALSE, reason = "There are too many sublevels. Checklist only supports a title and one section level"))
+  if (!checklist_has_trailing_newline(checklist)) return(list(valid = TRUE, reason = "File does not have a trailing newline")) # checklist is valid, but give a warning
   list(valid = TRUE, reason = NA)
 }
 
@@ -40,6 +48,7 @@ invalid_checklist_rename <- function(checklist, check_structure) {
 #' @importFrom cli cli_alert_info
 print_checklists <- function(config_path) {
   res <- validate_checklists(config_path = config_path)
+
   print_check <- as.data.frame(sapply(names(res), function(x) {
     elem <- gsub("INVALID - ", "", basename(x))
     bullet <- "v"
@@ -47,6 +56,10 @@ print_checklists <- function(config_path) {
       elem <- c(elem, res[[x]]$reason)
       bullet <- c("x", " ")
     }
+    else if (res[[x]]$valid && !is.na(res[[x]]$reason)) {
+      elem <- c(elem, res[[x]]$reason)
+      bullet <- c("!", " ")
+    }
     list(elem = elem, bullet = bullet)
   }))
   checks <- unlist(print_check["elem", ])