diff --git a/lib/util/utils.js b/lib/util/utils.js
index b9846286..bcdbf878 100644
--- a/lib/util/utils.js
+++ b/lib/util/utils.js
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ var fs = require('fs'),
   util = require('util'),
   path = require('path'),
   jsonPointer = require('json-pointer'),
+  YAML = require('js-yaml'),
   log = require('./logging'),
   request = require('request');
 
@@ -15,7 +16,7 @@ exports = module.exports;
  * Caches the json docs that were successfully parsed by exports.parseJson(). This avoids, fetching them again.
  * key: docPath
  * value: parsed doc in JSON format
- */  
+ */
 exports.docCache = {};
 
 
@@ -27,7 +28,7 @@ exports.clearCache = function clearCache() {
  * Removes byte order marker. This catches EF BB BF (the UTF-8 BOM)
  * because the buffer-to-string conversion in `fs.readFile()`
  * translates it to FEFF, the UTF-16 BOM.
- */ 
+ */
 exports.stripBOM = function stripBOM(content) {
   if (Buffer.isBuffer(content)) {
     content = content.toString();
@@ -61,13 +62,14 @@ exports.parseJson = function parseJson(specPath) {
     if (specPath.startsWith('https://github')) {
       specPath = specPath.replace(/^https:\/\/(github.com)(.*)blob\/(.*)/ig, 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com$2$3');
     }
-    let res = exports.makeRequest({ url: specPath, errorOnNon200Response: true});
+    let res = exports.makeRequest({ url: specPath, errorOnNon200Response: true });
     exports.docCache[specPath] = res;
     return res;
   } else {
     //local filepath
     try {
-      result = JSON.parse(exports.stripBOM(fs.readFileSync(specPath, 'utf8')));
+      let fileContent = exports.stripBOM(fs.readFileSync(specPath, 'utf8'));
+      let result = exports.parseContent(specPath, fileContent);
       exports.docCache[specPath] = result;
       return Promise.resolve(result);
     } catch (err) {
@@ -77,11 +79,34 @@ exports.parseJson = function parseJson(specPath) {
   }
 };
 
+/*
+ * Provides a parsed JSON from the given content.
+ *
+ * @param {string} filePath - A local file path or a (github) url to the swagger spec.
+ *
+ * @param {string} fileContent - The content to be parsed.
+ * 
+ * @returns {object} jsonDoc - Parsed document in JSON format.
+ */
+exports.parseContent = function parseContent(filePath, fileContent) {
+  let result = null;
+  if (/.*\.json$/ig.test(filePath)) {
+    result = JSON.parse(fileContent);
+  } else if (/.*\.ya?ml$/ig.test(filePath)) {
+    result = YAML.safeLoad(fileContent);
+  } else {
+    let msg = `We currently support "*.json" and "*.yaml | *.yml" file formats for validating swaggers.\n` +
+      `The current file extension in "${filePath}" is not supported.`;
+    throw new Error(msg);
+  }
+  return result;
+};
+
 /*
  * A utility function to help us acheive stuff in the same way as async/await but with yield statement and generator functions.
  * It waits till the task is over.
  * @param {function} A generator function as an input
- */ 
+ */
 exports.run = function run(genfun) {
   // instantiate the generator object
   var gen = genfun();
@@ -118,28 +143,29 @@ exports.run = function run(genfun) {
  * @param {boolean} options.errorOnNon200Response If true will reject the promise with an error if the response statuscode is not 200.
  * 
  * @return {Promise} promise - A promise that resolves to the responseBody or rejects to an error.
- */ 
+ */
 exports.makeRequest = function makeRequest(options) {
-
   var promise = new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
     request(options, function (err, response, responseBody) {
       if (err) {
-        return reject(err);
+        reject(err);
       }
       if (options.errorOnNon200Response && response.statusCode !== 200) {
         var msg = `StatusCode: "${response.statusCode}", ResponseBody: "${responseBody}."`;
-        return reject(new Error(msg));
+        reject(new Error(msg));
       }
-      let res;
+      let res = responseBody;
       try {
-        res = typeof responseBody.valueOf() === 'string'? JSON.parse(exports.stripBOM(responseBody)) : responseBody;
+        if (typeof responseBody.valueOf() === 'string') {
+          res = exports.parseContent(options.url, responseBody);
+        }
       } catch (error) {
-        let msg = `An error occurred while executing JSON.parse() on the responseBody. ${util.inspect(error, {depth: null})}.`
+        let msg = `An error occurred while parsing the responseBody. ${util.inspect(error, { depth: null })}.`
         let e = new Error(msg);
-        return reject(e);
+        reject(e);
       }
-       
-      return resolve(res);
+
+      resolve(res);
     });
   });
   return promise;
@@ -210,7 +236,7 @@ exports.parseReferenceInSwagger = function parseReferenceInSwagger(reference) {
   }
 
   let result = {};
-  if  (reference.includes('#')) {
+  if (reference.includes('#')) {
     //local reference in the doc
     if (reference.startsWith('#/')) {
       result.localReference = {};
@@ -228,7 +254,7 @@ exports.parseReferenceInSwagger = function parseReferenceInSwagger(reference) {
     //we are assuming that the string is a relative filePath
     result.filePath = reference;
   }
-  
+
   return result;
 };
 
@@ -244,7 +270,7 @@ exports.parseReferenceInSwagger = function parseReferenceInSwagger(reference) {
  * @param variable number of arguments and all the arguments must be of type string. Similar to the API 
  * provided by path.join() https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v6.x/docs/api/path.html#path_path_join_paths
  * @return {string} resolved path
- */ 
+ */
 exports.joinPath = function joinPath() {
   let finalPath = path.join.apply(path, arguments);
   finalPath = finalPath.replace(/\\/gi, '/');
@@ -273,9 +299,9 @@ exports.parseJsonWithPathFragments = function parseJsonWithPathFragments() {
  * @param {object} target The object to be merged into
  * 
  * @returns {object} target - Returns the merged target object.
- */ 
+ */
 exports.mergeObjects = function mergeObjects(source, target) {
-  Object.keys(source).forEach(function(key) { 
+  Object.keys(source).forEach(function (key) {
     target[key] = source[key];
   });
   return target;
@@ -289,7 +315,7 @@ exports.mergeObjects = function mergeObjects(source, target) {
  * @param {string} ptr The json reference pointer
  * 
  * @returns {any} result - Returns the value that the ptr points to, in the doc.
- */ 
+ */
 exports.getObject = function getObject(doc, ptr) {
   let result;
   try {
@@ -309,7 +335,7 @@ exports.getObject = function getObject(doc, ptr) {
  * 
  * @param {any} value The value that needs to be set at the 
  * location provided by the ptr in the doc.
- */ 
+ */
 exports.setObject = function setObject(doc, ptr, value) {
   let result;
   try {
@@ -325,7 +351,7 @@ exports.setObject = function setObject(doc, ptr, value) {
  * @param {object} doc The source object.
  * 
  * @param {string} ptr The json reference pointer.
- */ 
+ */
 exports.removeObject = function removeObject(doc, ptr) {
   let result;
   try {
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 7abadaf0..48c6dfc5 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
   "dependencies": {
     "azure-arm-resource": "^1.6.1-preview",
     "json-pointer": "^0.6.0",
+    "js-yaml": "^3.8.2",
     "moment": "^2.14.1",
     "ms-rest": "^1.15.3",
     "ms-rest-azure": "^1.15.3",