diff --git a/tests/test_creation.py b/tests/test_creation.py
index 13684325..ee5abdde 100644
--- a/tests/test_creation.py
+++ b/tests/test_creation.py
@@ -113,6 +113,7 @@ def test_folders(self):
             ".cookiecutter/state",
             ".recipes",
             "docs",
+            "tests",
             "inputs",
             "inputs/data",
             "outputs",
@@ -139,7 +140,7 @@ def test_folders(self):
                 lambda dir: not any(
                     (
                         re.match(f".*{stub}", dir)
-                        for stub in [".git/", ".vscode", ".pytest_cache"]
+                        for stub in [".git/", ".vscode", ".pytest_cache", "__pycache__"]
                     )
                 ),
                 abs_dirs,
diff --git a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/.gitignore b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/.gitignore
index 50145824..b79521ea 100644
--- a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/.gitignore	
+++ b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/.gitignore	
@@ -124,3 +124,8 @@ target/
 
 # NPM
 node_modules/
+
+# test cache
+.cache/*
+tests/__pycache__/*
+*.pytest_cache/
diff --git a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/tests/test_TEMPLATE.py b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/tests/test_TEMPLATE.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5871ed8e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/tests/test_TEMPLATE.py	
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+import pytest