diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b6c91ae84..9668c1e08 100755
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -57,6 +57,10 @@ CK consists of several sub-projects:
 * Copyright (c) 2021-2024 MLCommons
 * Copyright (c) 2014-2021 cTuning foundation
 
+### Author
+
+* [Grigori Fursin](https://cKnowledge.org/gfursin) (FlexAI, cTuning)
+
 ### Maintainers
 
 * CM/CM4Research/CM4MLPerf-results: [Grigori Fursin](https://cKnowledge.org/gfursin)
diff --git a/cm/CHANGES.md b/cm/CHANGES.md
index 8416126a1..d15293319 100644
--- a/cm/CHANGES.md
+++ b/cm/CHANGES.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
-## V3.4.3.1
-   - enhancing 'cm pull repo' based on user feedback
+## V3.4.4
+   - improved error reporting in utils.load_json and utils.load_yaml
+   - added utils.substitute_template
+   - enhanced 'cm pull repo' based on user feedback
 
 ## V3.4.3
    - fixed pyproject.toml
diff --git a/cm/cmind/__init__.py b/cm/cmind/__init__.py
index 3e8c2744c..e996b7932 100644
--- a/cm/cmind/__init__.py
+++ b/cm/cmind/__init__.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 #
 # Written by Grigori Fursin
 
-__version__ = "3.4.3.1"
+__version__ = "3.4.4"
 
 from cmind.core import access
 from cmind.core import x
diff --git a/cm/cmind/utils.py b/cm/cmind/utils.py
index 23296c6e4..5ba5bbce1 100644
--- a/cm/cmind/utils.py
+++ b/cm/cmind/utils.py
@@ -204,7 +204,7 @@ def load_json(file_name, check_if_exists = False, encoding='utf8'):
         try:
             meta = json.load(jf)
         except Exception as e:
-            return {'return':4, 'error': format(e)}
+            return {'return':4, 'error': f'detected problem in {file_name}: {e}'}
 
     return {'return':0, 'meta': meta}
 
@@ -274,7 +274,7 @@ def load_yaml(file_name, check_if_exists = False, encoding = 'utf8'):
                 # To support old versions
                 meta = yaml.safe_load(yf)
         except Exception as e:
-            return {'return':4, 'error': format(e)}
+            return {'return':4, 'error': f'detected problem in {file_name}: {e}'}
 
     return {'return':0,
             'meta': meta}
@@ -2152,3 +2152,21 @@ def digits(s, first = True):
        pass
 
     return v
+
+##############################################################################
+def substitute_template(template, variables):
+    """
+    Substitutes variables in a template string with values from a dictionary.
+
+    Args:
+        template (str): The template string with placeholders (e.g., "something-{var1}-something-{var2}").
+        vars (dict): A dictionary containing variable-value pairs (e.g., {'var1': 'a', 'var2': 'b'}).
+
+    Returns:
+        str: The template string with placeholders replaced by the corresponding values.
+    """
+    try:
+        return template.format(**variables)
+    except KeyError as e:
+        return f"Error: Missing value for {e.args[0]} in the vars dictionary."
+
diff --git a/cmx4mlops/README.md b/cmx4mlops/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a0990367e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmx4mlops/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+TBD
diff --git a/cmx4mlops/cmr.yaml b/cmx4mlops/cmr.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..54158c39c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmx4mlops/cmr.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+alias: cmx4mlops
+uid: 428611a6db02407f
+
+git: true
+
+version: "0.5.1"
+
+author: "Grigori Fursin"