diff --git a/.hooks/render-readme.sh b/.hooks/render-readme.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..52021ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.hooks/render-readme.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Check if README.qmd has been modified
+if git diff --cached --name-only | grep -q "^README\.qmd$"; then
+    echo "README.qmd has been modified. Rendering README.md..."
+    if quarto render README.qmd --to markdown; then
+        # Stage the updated README.md
+        git add README.md
+    else
+        echo "Failed to render README.qmd. Commit aborted."
+        exit 1
+    fi
+else
+    echo "README.qmd has not been modified. Skipping rendering."
+fi
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index ba4a070..58b77e8 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -10,4 +10,12 @@ repos:
   - repo: https://github.com/kynan/nbstripout
     rev: 0.7.1
     hooks:
-      - id: nbstripout
\ No newline at end of file
+      - id: nbstripout
+
+  - repo: local
+    hooks:
+      - id: render-readme
+        name: render README
+        entry: .hooks/render-readme.sh
+        language: system
+        files: ^README\.qmd$
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 927d900..fb91500 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
-# Earth Observation Datascience
-
+---
+title: Earth Observation Datascience
+toc-title: Table of contents
+---
 
 This is a book on Earth Observation Datascience, consisting of common
 workflows in Python at the Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation at
@@ -36,7 +38,7 @@ following steps:
     `_quarto.yml` file
 4)  Add references to `chapter/references.bib`
 
-Don’t worry if your original file is an Jupyter Notebook. Jupyter
+Don't worry if your original file is an Jupyter Notebook. Jupyter
 notebooks can be easily converted to quarto files by using:
 
 ``` {bash}
@@ -53,6 +55,16 @@ pip install pre-commit
 pre-commit install
 ```
 
+The pre configured hooks check for:
+
+-   trailing whitspaces
+-   large files
+-   private keys
+-   and renders the README file
+
+The file `.pre-commin-config.yaml` hereby specifies what hooks should be
+run.
+
 The `git workflow` essentialy converts the quarto files in `chapters`
 into jupyter notebooks, generates a file for the table of contents and
 pushes these files together with the **Makefile** and the
diff --git a/README.qmd b/README.qmd
index a4b767e..2500cc1 100644
--- a/README.qmd
+++ b/README.qmd
@@ -34,5 +34,13 @@ The pre-commit hooks can be used to check whether outputs are empty. This can be
 pip install pre-commit
 pre-commit install
 ```
+The pre configured hooks check for:
+
+* trailing whitspaces
+* large files
+* private keys
+* and renders the README file
+
+The file `.pre-commin-config.yaml` hereby specifies what hooks should be run.
 
 The `git workflow` essentialy converts the quarto files in ``chapters`` into jupyter notebooks, generates a file for the table of contents and pushes these files together with the **Makefile** and the **references.bib** files to the cookbook repository.
\ No newline at end of file