diff --git a/cuddle/src/cli/subcommands/init.rs b/cuddle/src/cli/subcommands/init.rs
index aacc9ec..74610d1 100644
--- a/cuddle/src/cli/subcommands/init.rs
+++ b/cuddle/src/cli/subcommands/init.rs
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ use std::fs::{create_dir_all, read, read_dir};
 use std::io::Write;
 use std::path::PathBuf;
 
+use anyhow::Context;
 use clap::{ArgMatches, Command};
 use walkdir::WalkDir;
 
@@ -178,8 +179,16 @@ pub fn execute_init(exe_submatch: &ArgMatches, _cli: CuddleCli) -> anyhow::Resul
             }
 
             tracing::info!("writing to: {}", new_path.display());
-            let new_content =
-                replace_with_variables(&std::fs::read_to_string(entry_path)?, &template)?;
+
+            let old_content = match std::fs::read_to_string(entry_path) {
+                Ok(e) => e,
+                Err(e) => {
+                    tracing::debug!("found invalid file possibly with invalid utf8: {}", e);
+                    std::fs::copy(entry_path, new_path).context("failed to write file")?;
+                    continue;
+                }
+            };
+            let new_content = replace_with_variables(&old_content, &template)?;
 
             std::fs::write(new_path, new_content.as_bytes())?;
         }