diff --git a/h8r/TODO.md b/h8r/TODO.md
index 552ab52..649e2e2 100644
--- a/h8r/TODO.md
+++ b/h8r/TODO.md
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 - [x] server on fixed port responding "oh no"
 - [x] configurable addr
-- [ ] string responses
-- [ ] error page paths
-- [ ] serve "index.txt" file if exists, else 404
+- [x] serve "index.txt" file if exists, else 404
 - [ ] serve relative paths with mime type text/plain
 - [ ] guess mime type
 - [ ] configurable working directory
+- [ ] string responses
 - [ ] automatic directory index
 - [ ] content ranges
+- [ ] error page paths
 - [ ] liquid template rendering
 - [ ] upstream proxy via prefix
 - [ ] upstream proxy path match
diff --git a/h8r/src/main.rs b/h8r/src/main.rs
index 2a206c9..9c60f83 100644
--- a/h8r/src/main.rs
+++ b/h8r/src/main.rs
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
-use std::io::Write;
+use std::env;
+use std::fs;
+use std::io::{self, Write};
 use std::net::{Shutdown, TcpListener};
 
-fn main() -> std::io::Result<()> {
-    let addr = std::env::var("H8R_ADDR").unwrap_or("127.0.0.1:17321".to_string());
+fn main() -> io::Result<()> {
+    let addr = env::var("H8R_ADDR").unwrap_or("127.0.0.1:17321".to_string());
     let listener = TcpListener::bind(&addr).unwrap();
 
     eprintln!("h8r: listening at {}", addr);
@@ -16,19 +18,32 @@ fn main() -> std::io::Result<()> {
     Ok(())
 }
 
-fn handle_conn(stream: &mut impl Write) -> std::io::Result<()> {
-    eprintln!("attempting to respond");
+fn handle_conn(stream: &mut impl Write) -> io::Result<()> {
+    eprintln!("h8r: attempting to respond");
 
-    let response = concat![
-        "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n",
-        "content-type: text/plain\r\n",
-        "\r\n",
-        "oh no\n",
-    ];
+    let index_res = fs::read_to_string("index.txt");
+    if index_res.is_ok() {
+        let head = concat!["HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n", "content-type: text/plain\r\n"];
+        let index = index_res.unwrap();
+        let index_len = index.len();
+        stream.write_all(head.as_bytes()).unwrap();
+        stream
+            .write_all(format!("content-length: {}\r\n", index_len).as_bytes())
+            .unwrap();
+        stream.write_all("\r\n".as_bytes()).unwrap();
+        stream.write_all(index.as_bytes()).unwrap();
+    } else {
+        let response = concat![
+            "HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found\r\n",
+            "content-type: text/plain\r\n",
+            "\r\n",
+            "oh no\n",
+        ];
+
+        stream.write_all(response.as_bytes()).unwrap();
+    }
 
-    stream.write_all(response.as_bytes()).unwrap();
     stream.flush()?;
-
     Ok(())
 }
 
@@ -38,7 +53,7 @@ mod tests {
 
     #[test]
     fn handle_conn_writes_response() {
-        let mut stream = [100u8].repeat(64_000);
+        let mut stream = [100u8].repeat(1_000);
         let _ = handle_conn(&mut stream);
         assert!(str::from_utf8(&stream).unwrap().contains("oh no"));
     }