# Berks error regarding metadata.rb

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/berks-error-regarding-metadata-rb/9756>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [October 24, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/berks-error-regarding-metadata-rb/9756 "2016-10-24T13:03:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jon.h](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/94ad74/32.png) [@jon.h](https://discourse.chef.io/u/jon.h)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/berks-error-regarding-metadata-rb/9756/1 "2016-10-24T13:03:31Z")

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Hi Everyone:

Chef newbie here. I'm working with chef cookbooks from marketplace. I'm just starting to use berks to download dependencies.

After using the knife site download cookbook command, I run a sudo berks init command and i get the following error:

> The resource at ... does not appear to be a valid cookbook. Does it have a metadata.rb?

Any reason why it needs a metadata.rb file? There's already a metadata.json file in the cookbook I donwloaded. Should I simply create a metadata.rb file and type the dependencies in there?

thanks,

jon