From c63f38d77a63d6b96b8bc0e1ac83aab20413af06 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Arpan Tripathi <tripathiarpan20@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2026 07:35:41 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] commit

---
 chutes/chute/base.py     | 7 +++++++
 chutes/image/__init__.py | 8 ++++++++
 2 files changed, 15 insertions(+)

diff --git a/chutes/chute/base.py b/chutes/chute/base.py
index 6b83471..9c364ef 100644
--- a/chutes/chute/base.py
+++ b/chutes/chute/base.py
@@ -56,6 +56,13 @@ def __init__(
         super().__init__(**kwargs)
         self._username = username
         self._name = name
+
+        if not readme and os.path.exists("README.md"):
+            try:
+                with open("README.md", "r") as f:
+                    readme = f.read()
+            except Exception:
+                pass
         self._readme = readme
         self._tagline = tagline
         self._uid = str(uuid.uuid5(uuid.NAMESPACE_OID, f"{username}::chute::{name}"))
diff --git a/chutes/image/__init__.py b/chutes/image/__init__.py
index a7b97d7..2be2d27 100644
--- a/chutes/image/__init__.py
+++ b/chutes/image/__init__.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import re
+import os
 import uuid
 from typing import List
 from chutes.image.directive.base_image import FROM
@@ -24,6 +25,13 @@ def __init__(self, username: str, name: str, tag: str, readme: str = ""):
         self._tag = None
         self.name = name
         self.tag = tag
+
+        if not readme and os.path.exists("README.md"):
+            try:
+                with open("README.md", "r") as f:
+                    readme = f.read()
+            except Exception:
+                pass
         self.readme = readme
         self.username = username
         self._uid = str(