diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 75db8444..eb1bf995 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -145,6 +145,10 @@ The `bootstrap` subcommand creates apply topic configs from the existing topics
 cluster. This can be used to "import" topics not created or previously managed by topicctl.
 The output can be sent to either a directory (if the `--output` flag is set) or `stdout`.
 
+By default, this does not include internal topics such as `__consumer_offsets`.
+If you would like to have these topics included,
+pass the `--allow-internal-topics` flag.
+
 #### check
 
 ```
diff --git a/cmd/topicctl/subcmd/bootstrap.go b/cmd/topicctl/subcmd/bootstrap.go
index b56ab891..7010bae0 100644
--- a/cmd/topicctl/subcmd/bootstrap.go
+++ b/cmd/topicctl/subcmd/bootstrap.go
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ type bootstrapCmdConfig struct {
 	outputDir     string
 	overwrite     bool
 
-	allowDoubleUnderscoreTopics bool
+	allowInternalTopics bool
 
 	shared sharedOptions
 }
@@ -54,10 +54,9 @@ func init() {
 		false,
 		"Overwrite existing configs in output directory",
 	)
-	// allow topics containing double underscores
 	bootstrapCmd.Flags().BoolVar(
-		&bootstrapConfig.allowDoubleUnderscoreTopics,
-		"allow-double-underscore-topics",
+		&bootstrapConfig.allowInternalTopics,
+		"allow-internal-topics",
 		false,
 		"Include topics that start with __ (typically these are internal topics)")
 
@@ -100,6 +99,6 @@ func bootstrapRun(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 		bootstrapConfig.excludeRegexp,
 		bootstrapConfig.outputDir,
 		bootstrapConfig.overwrite,
-		bootstrapConfig.allowDoubleUnderscoreTopics,
+		bootstrapConfig.allowInternalTopics,
 	)
 }