diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ea8c4bf..42fe5d8 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1 +1,3 @@
 /target
+
+/testfiles
diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 751a48f..e3e8550 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -137,6 +137,15 @@ dependencies = [
  "proc-macro2",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "same-file"
+version = "1.0.6"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "93fc1dc3aaa9bfed95e02e6eadabb4baf7e3078b0bd1b4d7b6b0b68378900502"
+dependencies = [
+ "winapi-util",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "sha2"
 version = "0.10.8"
@@ -165,6 +174,7 @@ version = "0.1.0"
 dependencies = [
  "pest",
  "pest_derive",
+ "walkdir",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -210,3 +220,44 @@ name = "version_check"
 version = "0.9.4"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "49874b5167b65d7193b8aba1567f5c7d93d001cafc34600cee003eda787e483f"
+
+[[package]]
+name = "walkdir"
+version = "2.4.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "d71d857dc86794ca4c280d616f7da00d2dbfd8cd788846559a6813e6aa4b54ee"
+dependencies = [
+ "same-file",
+ "winapi-util",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "winapi"
+version = "0.3.9"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "5c839a674fcd7a98952e593242ea400abe93992746761e38641405d28b00f419"
+dependencies = [
+ "winapi-i686-pc-windows-gnu",
+ "winapi-x86_64-pc-windows-gnu",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "winapi-i686-pc-windows-gnu"
+version = "0.4.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "ac3b87c63620426dd9b991e5ce0329eff545bccbbb34f3be09ff6fb6ab51b7b6"
+
+[[package]]
+name = "winapi-util"
+version = "0.1.6"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "f29e6f9198ba0d26b4c9f07dbe6f9ed633e1f3d5b8b414090084349e46a52596"
+dependencies = [
+ "winapi",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "winapi-x86_64-pc-windows-gnu"
+version = "0.4.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "712e227841d057c1ee1cd2fb22fa7e5a5461ae8e48fa2ca79ec42cfc1931183f"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 71fd8d5..751bf2b 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -8,3 +8,4 @@ edition = "2021"
 [dependencies]
 pest = "2.7.6"
 pest_derive = "2.7.6"
+walkdir = "2.4.0"
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index 079be18..ed14c8a 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,2 +1,5 @@
 /// parsers contains the relevant grammar parsers
 pub mod parsers;
+
+/// search contains functions for searching files and tags.
+pub mod search;
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index e7a11a9..f5149f6 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
-fn main() {
-    println!("Hello, world!");
+use tag::search::get_tags_from_files;
+
+fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
+    let tagged_files = get_tags_from_files("testfiles")?;
+
+    for file in tagged_files.iter() {
+        println!("File {} contains {:?}", file.path.display(), file.tags);
+    }
+
+    Ok(())
 }
diff --git a/src/parsers.rs b/src/parsers.rs
index 74fc01c..c86dedd 100644
--- a/src/parsers.rs
+++ b/src/parsers.rs
@@ -47,12 +47,6 @@ mod tests {
                 expected_tags: vec!["#1", "#asdf", "#something-idk"],
                 expected_error: false,
             },
-            TestCase {
-                name: "success_with_newline",
-                input: "tags:\n[\n\t#something_else\n]",
-                expected_tags: vec!["#something_else"],
-                expected_error: false,
-            },
             TestCase {
                 name: "fail_no_brackets",
                 input: "tags:#1#2#3",
diff --git a/src/search.rs b/src/search.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a8b643f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/search.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+use std::{
+    fs,
+    io::{BufRead, BufReader},
+    path::{Path, PathBuf},
+};
+
+use pest::Parser;
+use walkdir::WalkDir;
+
+use crate::parsers::tagline::{self, TaglineParser};
+
+/// TaggedFile is a file that contains tags.
+#[derive(Clone)]
+pub struct TaggedFile {
+    pub path: PathBuf,
+    pub tags: Vec<String>,
+}
+
+/// get_tags_from_file() returns a list of tags found in a file.
+/// It will return an error if a file has no parsable tags.
+fn get_tags_from_file(file: &Path) -> Result<Vec<String>, Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
+    let file = fs::File::open(file)?;
+    let mut buffer = BufReader::new(file);
+    let mut tagline = String::new();
+    let _ = buffer.read_line(&mut tagline)?;
+
+    let parsed = TaglineParser::parse(tagline::Rule::tagline, tagline.trim())?;
+
+    let mut tags = Vec::new();
+
+    for tag in parsed {
+        if tag.as_rule() == tagline::Rule::tag {
+            tags.push(tag.as_str().to_string())
+        }
+    }
+
+    Ok(tags)
+}
+
+/// get_tags_from_files() recursively retrieves the tags of all files
+/// in a given directory.
+pub fn get_tags_from_files(directory: &str) -> Result<Vec<TaggedFile>, Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
+    let mut tagged_files = Vec::new();
+
+    for entry in WalkDir::new(directory).follow_links(true) {
+        let entry = entry?;
+
+        if entry.file_type().is_dir() {
+            continue;
+        }
+
+        let tags = get_tags_from_file(entry.path())?;
+        tagged_files.push(TaggedFile {
+            path: entry.path().to_owned(),
+            tags,
+        })
+    }
+
+    Ok(tagged_files.clone())
+}
diff --git a/tagline.pest b/tagline.pest
index 79a0f9f..afd7492 100644
--- a/tagline.pest
+++ b/tagline.pest
@@ -2,5 +2,5 @@ tag = {"#" ~ (LETTER|NUMBER|CONNECTOR_PUNCTUATION|DASH_PUNCTUATION)+}
 taglist = _{"[" ~ tag* ~ "]"}
 tagline = _{SOI ~ "tags:" ~ taglist ~ EOI}
 
-WHITESPACE = _{" " | "\t" | NEWLINE}
+WHITESPACE = _{" " | "\t"}