diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bee8a64
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+__pycache__
diff --git a/tools/__init__.py b/tools/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/tools/chk_dup.py b/tools/chk_dup.py
index 2ed2f89..9df3000 100755
--- a/tools/chk_dup.py
+++ b/tools/chk_dup.py
@@ -8,9 +8,19 @@ import os
 import collections
 
 
-def loadjsons(path):
+def loadjsons(path, return_paths=False):
     """
-      Find all Jsons and load them in a dict
+    Find all Jsons and load them in a dict
+
+    Parameters:
+        path: string
+        return_names: boolean, if the name of the file should be returned,
+        default: False
+
+    Returns:
+        List of parsed file contents.
+        If return_paths is True, then every list item is a tuple of the
+        file name and the file content
     """
     files = []
     data = []
@@ -18,9 +28,14 @@ def loadjsons(path):
         if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(path, name)) and name.endswith('.json'):
             files.append(name)
     for jfile in files:
-        data.append(json.load(open("%s/%s" % (path, jfile))))
+        filepath = os.path.join(path, jfile)
+        if return_paths:
+            data.append((filepath, json.load(open(filepath))))
+        else:
+            data.append(json.load(json.load(open(filepath))))
     return data
 
+
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     """
         Iterate all name + synonyms
@@ -33,19 +48,19 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
         items = djson.get('values')
         for entry in items:
             name = entry.get('value').strip().lower()
-            counter[name]+=1
+            counter[name] += 1
             namespace.append([name, djson.get('name')])
             try:
                 for synonym in entry.get('meta').get('synonyms'):
                     name = synonym.strip().lower()
-                    counter[name]+=1
+                    counter[name] += 1
                     namespace.append([name, djson.get('name')])
             except (AttributeError, TypeError):
                 pass
     counter = dict(counter)
     for key, val in counter.items():
-        if val>1:
-            print ("Warning duplicate %s" % key)
+        if val > 1:
+            print("Warning duplicate %s" % key)
             for item in namespace:
-                if item[0]==key:
-                    print (item)
+                if item[0] == key:
+                    print(item)
diff --git a/tools/chk_empty_strings.py b/tools/chk_empty_strings.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..1ccac24
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/chk_empty_strings.py
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# coding=utf-8
+"""
+    Tools to find empty string entries in galaxies
+"""
+from .chk_dup import loadjsons
+import sys
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    jsons = loadjsons("clusters", return_paths=True)
+    retval = 0
+    for clustername, djson in jsons:
+        items = djson.get('values')
+        for entry in items:
+            name = entry.get('value')
+            for key, value in entry.get('meta', {}).items():
+                if isinstance(value, list):
+                    if '' in value:
+                        retval = 1
+                        print("Empty string found in Cluster %r: values/%s/meta/%s"
+                              "" % (clustername, name, key),
+                              file=sys.stderr)
+    sys.exit(retval)
diff --git a/validate_all.sh b/validate_all.sh
index 7d1a842..f797c55 100755
--- a/validate_all.sh
+++ b/validate_all.sh
@@ -84,3 +84,6 @@ do
   fi
   echo ''
 done
+
+# check for empyt strings in clusters
+python3 -m tools.chk_empty_strings