# Conversion of existing git repo to renku overwrites readme

**URL:** <https://renku.discourse.group/t/conversion-of-existing-git-repo-to-renku-overwrites-readme/221>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [2 December 2020 13:45 UTC](https://renku.discourse.group/t/conversion-of-existing-git-repo-to-renku-overwrites-readme/221 "2020-12-02T13:45:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![schymans](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/renku.discourse.group/schymans/32/77_2.png) [@schymans](https://renku.discourse.group/u/schymans)\
**Post date:** [2 December 2020 13:45 UTC](https://renku.discourse.group/t/conversion-of-existing-git-repo-to-renku-overwrites-readme/221/1 "2020-12-02T13:45:31Z")

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@Kriegelw just told me that when he ran `renku init` to convert an existing git repo to renku, the readme.md was replaced by the generic renku one. This is a bit annoying. Would it be possible to return a warning if there is a readme.md present already and enable skipping creation of the generic readme.md?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tolevski](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/renku.discourse.group/tolevski/32/137_2.png) [@tolevski](https://renku.discourse.group/u/tolevski)\
**Post date:** [26 July 2021 19:53 UTC](https://renku.discourse.group/t/conversion-of-existing-git-repo-to-renku-overwrites-readme/221/2 "2021-07-26T19:53:31Z")

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@schymans I just tried to replicate this in a local repository on my computer and could not.

I did the following:

```auto
~ mkdir test-repo
~ cd test-repo
~ git init
~ echo "# Test Repo" > README.md
~ git add README.md
~ git commit -m "Add readme"
~ renku init

```

Renku did not overwrite the contests of my `README.md` file.

Perhaps you have an older version of the renku CLI where this was indeed an issue.

I did the above with 0.16.0. Which version do you have? You check which version you have by running `renku --version`.