diff --git a/tembo/cli.py b/tembo/cli.py
index 1978be1..e5810e6 100644
--- a/tembo/cli.py
+++ b/tembo/cli.py
@@ -46,7 +46,6 @@ def new(scope, inputs, dry_run):
                     template_filename=str(user_scope["template_filename"])
                 )
                 scoped_page.save_to_disk(dry_run=dry_run)
-                tembo.logger.info("Saved %s to disk", scoped_page.path)
                 raise SystemExit(0)
     if not _name_found and len(tembo.CONFIG.scopes) > 0:
         tembo.logger.warning("Command %s not found in config.yml - exiting", scope)
@@ -63,5 +62,5 @@ run.add_command(new)
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     # BUG: fix this bug where input tokens are mismatched
     # new(["meeting", "robs presentation", "meeting on gcp"])
-    new(["meeting", "a", "b", "c"])
+    new(["meeting", "a", "b", "c", "d"])
     # new(["meeting", "robs presentation"])
diff --git a/tembo/journal/pages.py b/tembo/journal/pages.py
index f27afd1..98a8379 100644
--- a/tembo/journal/pages.py
+++ b/tembo/journal/pages.py
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ class ScopedPageCreator(PageCreator):
         self.page_path = ""
         self.filename = ""
         self.extension = ""
+        self._all_input_tokens: list[str] = []
         # TODO: rename these to input tokens + more sensible
         self.path_input_token_counts = {"config": 0, "user": 0}
         self.template_input_token_counts = {"config": 0, "user": 0}
@@ -87,6 +88,11 @@ class ScopedPageCreator(PageCreator):
         self.filename = filename
         self.extension = extension
 
+        # verify the user input matches the number of input tokens in the
+        # config/templates
+        self._all_input_tokens = self.__get_input_tokens(template_filename)
+        self.__verify_input_tokens(user_input)
+
         # get the path of the scoped page
         path = self._convert_to_path(
             self.base_path, self.page_path, self.filename, self.extension
@@ -110,6 +116,40 @@ class ScopedPageCreator(PageCreator):
         self.__check_input_token_mismatch()
         return ScopedPage(path, template_contents)
 
+    def __get_input_tokens(self, template_filename: str | None) -> list[str]:
+        path = str(
+            pathlib.Path(
+                self.base_path, self.page_path, self.filename, self.extension
+            ).expanduser()
+        )
+        if template_filename is not None:
+            template_contents = self._load_template(self.base_path, template_filename)
+        else:
+            template_contents = ""
+        # get the input tokens from both the path and the template
+        all_input_tokens = []
+        for tokenified_string in (path, template_contents):
+            all_input_tokens.extend(re.findall(r"(\{input\d*\})", tokenified_string))
+        return sorted(all_input_tokens)
+
+    def __verify_input_tokens(self, user_input: Tuple[str, ...] | Tuple[()]) -> None:
+        if len(self._all_input_tokens) != len(user_input):
+            logger.critical(
+                "Your config/template specifies %s input tokens, you gave %s",
+                len(self._all_input_tokens),
+                len(user_input),
+            )
+            raise SystemExit(1)
+
+    def __substitute_input_tokens__(
+        self,
+        tokenified_string: str,
+        user_input: Tuple[str, ...] | Tuple[()],
+    ) -> str:
+        for input_value, extracted_token in zip(user_input, self._all_input_tokens):
+            tokenified_string = tokenified_string.replace(extracted_token, input_value)
+        return tokenified_string
+
     def __check_input_token_mismatch(self) -> None:
         _max_config_input_token_count = max(
             self.path_input_token_counts["config"],
@@ -142,9 +182,12 @@ class ScopedPageCreator(PageCreator):
         input_token_type: Literal["path", "template"],
     ) -> str:
         """For a tokened string, substitute input, name and date tokens."""
-
-        tokenified_string = self.__substitute_input_tokens(
-            tokenified_string, user_input, input_token_type
+        # TODO: fn to get tokens from file and template
+        # tokenified_string = self.__substitute_input_tokens(
+        #     tokenified_string, user_input, input_token_type
+        # )
+        tokenified_string = self.__substitute_input_tokens__(
+            tokenified_string, user_input
         )
         tokenified_string = self.__substitute_name_tokens(tokenified_string, name)
         tokenified_string = self.__substitute_date_tokens(tokenified_string)
@@ -247,9 +290,10 @@ class ScopedPage(Page):
         if not scoped_note_file.exists():
             with scoped_note_file.open("w", encoding="utf-8") as scoped_page:
                 scoped_page.write(self.page_content)
+            logger.info("Saved %s to disk", self.path)
         else:
             logger.info("%s already exists - skipping.", self.path)
-            raise SystemExit(0)
+        raise SystemExit(0)
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":