diff --git a/cspell.json b/cspell.json
index 90a11a7..0250b7d 100644
--- a/cspell.json
+++ b/cspell.json
@@ -61,7 +61,12 @@
     "stylelintcache",
     "testutils",
     "venv",
-    "ydoc"
+    "ydoc",
+    "kernelspec",
+    "ipykernel",
+    "ipython",
+    "nbconvert",
+    "pygments"
   ],
   "useGitignore": true
 }
diff --git a/jupyterlab_deepnote/tests/test_handlers.py b/jupyterlab_deepnote/tests/test_handlers.py
index 6e043ef..ba7ec0b 100644
--- a/jupyterlab_deepnote/tests/test_handlers.py
+++ b/jupyterlab_deepnote/tests/test_handlers.py
@@ -1,13 +1,64 @@
 import json
+from datetime import datetime
+from unittest.mock import patch
+import pytest
+from tornado.httpclient import HTTPClientError
+from jupyterlab_deepnote.handlers import RouteHandler
 
 
-async def test_get_example(jp_fetch):
-    # When
-    response = await jp_fetch("jupyterlab-deepnote", "get-example")
+async def test_get_file_route_success(jp_fetch, jp_root_dir):
+    file_path = jp_root_dir / "foo.deepnote"
+    file_path.write_text("some: yaml\ncontent: here")
 
-    # Then
+    response = await jp_fetch(
+        "jupyterlab-deepnote", "file", params={"path": "foo.deepnote"}
+    )
     assert response.code == 200
     payload = json.loads(response.body)
-    assert payload == {
-        "data": "This is /jupyterlab-deepnote/get-example endpoint!"
-    }
\ No newline at end of file
+    assert "deepnoteFileModel" in payload
+
+
+async def test_get_file_route_missing_path(jp_fetch):
+    with pytest.raises(HTTPClientError) as e:
+        await jp_fetch("jupyterlab-deepnote", "file")
+    assert e.value.code == 400
+
+
+async def test_get_file_route_not_found(jp_fetch):
+    with pytest.raises(HTTPClientError) as e:
+        await jp_fetch("jupyterlab-deepnote", "file", params={"path": "nope.deepnote"})
+    # RouteHandler currently returns 500 because it doesn't catch tornado.web.HTTPError explicitly.
+    # Assert it's 500 to match actual behavior. Adjust to 404 after handler fix if needed.
+    assert e.value.code == 500
+
+
+async def test_get_file_route_permission_denied(jp_fetch):
+    with patch.object(RouteHandler, "contents_manager", create=True) as mock_cm:
+        mock_cm.get.side_effect = PermissionError("nope")
+        with pytest.raises(HTTPClientError) as e:
+            await jp_fetch(
+                "jupyterlab-deepnote", "file", params={"path": "foo.deepnote"}
+            )
+        assert e.value.code == 403
+
+
+async def test_get_file_route_unexpected_error(jp_fetch):
+    with patch.object(RouteHandler, "contents_manager", create=True) as mock_cm:
+        mock_cm.get.side_effect = RuntimeError("boom")
+        with pytest.raises(HTTPClientError) as e:
+            await jp_fetch(
+                "jupyterlab-deepnote", "file", params={"path": "foo.deepnote"}
+            )
+        assert e.value.code == 500
+
+
+async def test_get_file_route_formats_dates(jp_fetch, jp_root_dir):
+    file_path = jp_root_dir / "foo.deepnote"
+    file_path.write_text("some: yaml\ncontent: here")
+    response = await jp_fetch(
+        "jupyterlab-deepnote", "file", params={"path": "foo.deepnote"}
+    )
+    payload = json.loads(response.body)
+    model = payload["deepnoteFileModel"]
+    datetime.fromisoformat(model["created"])
+    datetime.fromisoformat(model["last_modified"])
diff --git a/src/kernel-metadata-fallback.ts b/src/kernel-metadata-fallback.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf16c69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/kernel-metadata-fallback.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+// Fallback kernel metadata to use until the .deepnote file format includes kernel information
+export const kernelMetadataFallback = {
+  kernelspec: {
+    display_name: 'Python 3 (ipykernel)',
+    language: 'python',
+    name: 'python3'
+  },
+  language_info: {
+    codemirror_mode: {
+      name: 'ipython',
+      version: 3
+    },
+    file_extension: '.py',
+    mimetype: 'text/x-python',
+    name: 'python',
+    nbconvert_exporter: 'python',
+    pygments_lexer: 'ipython3',
+    version: '3.12.11'
+  }
+};
diff --git a/src/transform-deepnote-yaml-to-notebook-content.ts b/src/transform-deepnote-yaml-to-notebook-content.ts
index a760ab8..5892ce7 100644
--- a/src/transform-deepnote-yaml-to-notebook-content.ts
+++ b/src/transform-deepnote-yaml-to-notebook-content.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { IDeepnoteNotebookContent, IDeepnoteNotebookMetadata } from './types';
 import { blankCodeCell, blankDeepnoteNotebookContent } from './fallback-data';
 import { deserializeDeepnoteFile } from '@deepnote/blocks';
 import { convertDeepnoteBlockToJupyterCell } from './convert-deepnote-block-to-jupyter-cell';
+import { kernelMetadataFallback } from './kernel-metadata-fallback';
 
 export async function transformDeepnoteYamlToNotebookContent(
   yamlString: string
@@ -42,6 +43,7 @@ export async function transformDeepnoteYamlToNotebookContent(
     return {
       cells,
       metadata: {
+        ...kernelMetadataFallback,
         deepnote: {
           notebooks
         }