diff --git a/grafana_dashboards/tests/__init__.py b/grafana_dashboards/schema/__init__.py
similarity index 100%
rename from grafana_dashboards/tests/__init__.py
rename to grafana_dashboards/schema/__init__.py
diff --git a/grafana_dashboards/schema/panel.py b/grafana_dashboards/schema/panel.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1a2b4ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/grafana_dashboards/schema/panel.py
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+# Copyright 2015 Red Hat, Inc.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+import voluptuous as v
+
+
+class BasePanel(object):
+
+    def validate(self, data):
+        panel = {
+            v.Required('editable', default=True): v.All(bool),
+            v.Required('error', default=False): v.All(bool),
+            v.Required('span', default=12): v.All(int, v.Range(min=0, max=12)),
+            v.Required('title'): v.All(str, v.Length(min=1)),
+            v.Required('type'): v.All(str),
+            v.Optional('id'): int,
+        }
+        panel.update(self.fields)
+        schema = v.Schema({
+            'panels': [panel]
+        })
+
+        return schema(data)
+
+
+class Text(BasePanel):
+    fields = {
+        v.Required('content'): v.All(str),
+        v.Required('mode'): v.All(str),
+        v.Optional('style'): dict(),
+    }
diff --git a/grafana_dashboards/tests/test_grafana_dashboards.py b/grafana_dashboards/tests/test_grafana_dashboards.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 33b6122..0000000
--- a/grafana_dashboards/tests/test_grafana_dashboards.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,28 +0,0 @@
-# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
-
-# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
-# not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
-# a copy of the License at
-#
-#      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
-# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
-# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
-# under the License.
-
-"""
-test_grafana_dashboards
-----------------------------------
-
-Tests for `grafana_dashboards` module.
-"""
-
-from grafana_dashboards.tests import base
-
-
-class TestGrafana_dashboards(base.TestCase):
-
-    def test_something(self):
-        pass
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 95137a6..8c4753b 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -4,3 +4,6 @@
 
 pbr>=0.6,!=0.7,<1.0
 Babel>=1.3
+
+PyYAML>=3.1.0
+voluptuous>=0.7
diff --git a/tests/__init__.py b/tests/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/grafana_dashboards/tests/base.py b/tests/base.py
similarity index 100%
rename from grafana_dashboards/tests/base.py
rename to tests/base.py
diff --git a/tests/schema/__init__.py b/tests/schema/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/tests/schema/fixtures/text-no-title.yaml b/tests/schema/fixtures/text-no-title.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..156bfba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/schema/fixtures/text-no-title.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+panels:
+    - type: text
+      title: no title (click here)
+      error: false
+      editable: true
+      span: 12
+      id: 1
+      mode: markdown
+      content: ''
+      style: {}
diff --git a/tests/schema/test_panel.py b/tests/schema/test_panel.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6c7a647
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/schema/test_panel.py
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# Copyright 2015 Red Hat, Inc.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+import os
+import yaml
+
+from testtools import TestCase
+
+from grafana_dashboards.schema import panel
+
+FIXTURE_DIR = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),
+                           'fixtures')
+
+
+class TestCaseSchemaPanel(TestCase):
+    def test_layouts(self):
+        for fn in os.listdir(os.path.join(FIXTURE_DIR)):
+            layout = os.path.join(FIXTURE_DIR, fn)
+            data = yaml.load(open(layout))
+            schema = panel.Text()
+            schema.validate(data)