diff --git a/enterprise-release-publisher/erp.clj b/enterprise-release-publisher/erp.clj
index c8158e1..4a1308b 100755
--- a/enterprise-release-publisher/erp.clj
+++ b/enterprise-release-publisher/erp.clj
@@ -1,6 +1,16 @@
 #! /usr/bin/bb
+(require '[clojure.tools.cli :refer [parse-opts]])
 (require '[babashka.curl :as curl])
 
+(def cli-options
+  [["-s" "--skip-build" "Skips the building process and will upload the currently built version."
+    :id :skip-build
+    :default false]])
+
+(def parsed-params (parse-opts *command-line-args* cli-options))
+(def options (:options parsed-params))
+(def code (first (:arguments parsed-params)))
+
 ;;executes shell command but throws exception on error
 (defn- safe-sh [& commands]
   (as-> (apply shell/sh commands) $
@@ -20,40 +30,49 @@
   "creates the path string of the output folder for the given module & variant"
   (create-path-string wd module "build" "outputs" "apk" variant))
 
+(defn- parse-generated-metadata-file [module variant]
+  (json/parse-string (slurp (create-path-string (get-output-folder module variant) metadata-file)) true))
+
 (defn- create-enterprise-release [module variant]
   "builds the app using the given module & variant and then returns the parsed metadata"
   (println "building project..")
-  (safe-sh (create-path-string wd "gradlew") (str ":" module ":assemble" (str/capitalize variant)))
-  (json/parse-string (slurp (create-path-string (get-output-folder module variant) metadata-file)) true))
+  (safe-sh (create-path-string wd "gradlew") (str ":" module ":assemble" (str/capitalize variant))))
 
-(defn- fetch-remote-config [server path file-name]
+(json/parse-string (str/replace (slurp "/home/schrofi/test.json") #"\p{C}" "") true)
+
+(defn- fetch-remote-config [server user path file-name]
   "fetches and parses the configuration on the remote server"
   (let [remote-path (str server path "/" file-name ".json")]
     (println "fetching remote config..")
-    (json/parse-string (:body (curl/get remote-path)) true)))
+    (json/parse-string (->
+                        (:body (curl/get remote-path {:raw-args ["-u" (str user ":")]}))
+                        ;; remove non printable characters causing parsing issues
+                        (str/replace #"\p{C}" ""))
+                       true)))
 
 (defn- upload-version [config metadata]
   "uploads the built apk and updates the remote json to reflect the new version"
   (let [info (second config)
         server (:server info)
+        user (:user info)
         path (:path info)
         file-name (:fileName info)
         output-folder (get-output-folder (:module info) (:variant info))
         output-file (create-path-string output-folder (get-in metadata [:elements 0 :outputFile]))
-        remote-config (fetch-remote-config server path file-name)
+        remote-config (fetch-remote-config server user path file-name)
         new-version (get-in metadata [:elements 0 :versionCode])
         version-name (get-in metadata [:elements 0 :versionName])]
     (if (<= new-version (get-in remote-config [:android :version_code]))
       (println "warning: version on remote was higher or the same as uploaded version"))
     (println "uploading apk..")
-    (curl/post (str server path "/" file-name ".apk") {:raw-args ["-T" output-file]})
+    (curl/post (str server path "/" file-name ".apk") {:raw-args ["-T" output-file "-u" (str user ":")]})
     (println "updating version on remote..")
     (let [updated-remote-file (create-path-string output-folder (str file-name ".json"))]
       (as-> remote-config $
         (update-in $ [:android :version_code] (fn [x] new-version))
         (json/generate-string $ {:pretty true})
         (spit updated-remote-file $))
-      (curl/post (str server path "/" file-name ".json") {:raw-args ["-T" updated-remote-file]}))
+      (curl/post (str server path "/" file-name ".json") {:raw-args ["-T" updated-remote-file "-u" (str user ":")]}))
     (println (str "new version " version-name " (" new-version ")" " successfully uploaded to " (name (first config))))))
 
 (defn- add-git-tag [config metadata]
@@ -70,13 +89,14 @@
         (println (str "created tag " tag " and pushed it to remote " remote)))
       (println "warning: there were uncommitted changes. git tag was not automatically created"))))
 
-(defn- build-and-upload [config]
+(defn- build-and-upload [config skip-build]
   "builds & uploads the application based on the handed over configuration"
   (let [info (second config)
         module (:module info)
         variant (:variant info)
         git-tag (:gitTag info)]
-    (let [metadata (create-enterprise-release module variant)]
+    (if (not skip-build) (create-enterprise-release module variant))
+    (let [metadata (parse-generated-metadata-file module variant)]
       (upload-version config metadata)
       (if (not (nil? git-tag))
         (add-git-tag git-tag metadata)))))
@@ -88,8 +108,8 @@
 (def selected-config
   (if
       (= (count config) 1) (first config)
-      (first (filter #(= (first %) (keyword (first *command-line-args*))) config))))
+      (first (filter #(= (first %) (keyword code)) config))))
 
 (if (nil? selected-config)
   (println "error: no matching config found")
-  (build-and-upload selected-config))
+  (build-and-upload selected-config (:skip-build options)))
diff --git a/enterprise-release-publisher/readme.md b/enterprise-release-publisher/readme.md
index 1cf1351..8c202c1 100644
--- a/enterprise-release-publisher/readme.md
+++ b/enterprise-release-publisher/readme.md
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ This file can contain multiple release configurations and needs to specify a cou
     "DEV": {
         "module": "app",
         "variant": "debug",
+        "user": "www",
         "server": "sftp://127.0.0.1",
         "path": "/var/www/apps/projects/test",
         "fileName": "Enterprise-Test",
@@ -20,6 +21,7 @@ This file can contain multiple release configurations and needs to specify a cou
     "INT": {
         "module": "app",
         "variant": "release",
+        "user": "www",
         "server": "sftp://127.0.0.1",
         "path": "/var/www/apps/projects/test",
         "fileName": "Enterprise-Test"
@@ -29,6 +31,7 @@ This file can contain multiple release configurations and needs to specify a cou
 - `module`: Specifies the module built with Gradle.
 - `variant`: The variant that should be built. It's combined with the module from above to create the proper Gradle command, e.g. `:app:assembleDebug`.
 - `server`: The server (including protocol) to upload the files to.
+- `user`: The user (which will be passed to curl) to use for the server.
 - `path`: The path on the remote server where the files should be placed.
 - `fileName`: The name to be used for the apk & json files on the remote.
 - `gitTag`: Optional object specifying the format of git tags that should be created automatically.
@@ -44,13 +47,18 @@ erp.clj
 erp.clj "INT"
 ```
 
+If you do not want to rebuild your project and just upload the currently built apk, you can use the `--skip-build` or `-s` flag to skip the build phase.
+```bash
+erp.clj --skip-build
+erp.clj -s "INT"
+```
+
 ##
 ### SSH Configuration
-I'm assuming that you've properly defined your credentials in `~/.ssh/config`, so you don't have to specify any credentials in your configuration files. You can assign specific credentials to different hosts there.
+I'm assuming that you've properly defined your credentials in `~/.ssh/config`. Unfortunately curl does not pick up the users defined inside that file, so the actual user still has to be specified inside `enterprise-releases.json`. 
 
 ```
 Host SERVER
-     User USER
      IdentityFile PATH_TO_KEY
 ```
 
@@ -59,7 +67,7 @@ If you don't want to add the script itself to your path you can also create a fi
 
 ```
 function erp
-    PATH_TO_SCRIPT/erp.clj $argv[1]
+    PATH_TO_SCRIPT/erp.clj $argv
 end
 
 funcsave erp