diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8b7c36c0..bcf7d296 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ SCI is used in [babashka](https://github.com/babashka/babashka),
 ## Unreleased
 
 - Fix [#626](https://github.com/babashka/sci/issues/626): add `cljs.core/exists?`
+- Fix [#919](https://github.com/babashka/sci/issues/919): :js-libs + refer + rename clashes with core var
 
 ## 0.8.41 (2023-11-24)
 
diff --git a/src/sci/core.cljc b/src/sci/core.cljc
index 409c0349..5e26ebcd 100644
--- a/src/sci/core.cljc
+++ b/src/sci/core.cljc
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@
    [sci.impl.callstack :as cs]
    [sci.impl.interpreter :as i]
    [sci.impl.io :as sio]
-   [sci.impl.load :as load]
    [sci.impl.macros :as macros]
    [sci.impl.namespaces :as namespaces]
    [sci.impl.opts :as opts]
@@ -496,7 +495,11 @@
   "Adds import of class named by `class-name` (a symbol) to namespace named by `ns-name` (a symbol) under alias `alias` (a symbol). Returns mutated context."
   [ctx ns-name class-name alias]
   ;; This relies on an internal format of the context and may change at any time.
-  (swap! (:env ctx) assoc-in [:namespaces ns-name :imports alias] class-name)
+  (swap! (:env ctx)
+         (fn [env]
+           (-> env
+               (assoc-in [:namespaces ns-name :imports alias] class-name)
+               (update-in [:namespaces ns-name :refer 'clojure.core :exclude] (fnil conj #{}) alias))))
   ctx)
 
 (defn add-class!
diff --git a/src/sci/impl/load.cljc b/src/sci/impl/load.cljc
index d6bccc86..f3d9c6cc 100644
--- a/src/sci/impl/load.cljc
+++ b/src/sci/impl/load.cljc
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
                                    refer (get rename refer refer)]
                                (-> env
                                    (assoc-in [:namespaces cnn :imports refer] sub-sym)
+                                   (update-in [:namespaces cnn :refer 'clojure.core :exclude] (fnil conj #{}) refer)
                                    (assoc-in [:class->opts sub-sym :class] the-sublib)
                                    (assoc-in [:raw-classes sub-sym] the-sublib))))
                            env refers))
diff --git a/src/sci/impl/parser.cljc b/src/sci/impl/parser.cljc
index a38cafa9..cb6e2c9a 100644
--- a/src/sci/impl/parser.cljc
+++ b/src/sci/impl/parser.cljc
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@
                                             :refer
                                             (get 'clojure.core)
                                             :exclude
-                                            (contains? sym ))))
+                                            (contains? sym))))
                           (contains? utils/ana-macros sym))
                   (symbol "clojure.core" sym-name-str))
                 (interop/fully-qualify-class ctx sym)
diff --git a/test/sci/js_libs_test.cljs b/test/sci/js_libs_test.cljs
index 77fbbfd8..8739717b 100644
--- a/test/sci/js_libs_test.cljs
+++ b/test/sci/js_libs_test.cljs
@@ -36,6 +36,11 @@
            (sci/eval-form ctx '(do (require '["fs" :refer [readFileSync]]
                                             '[clojure.string :as str])
                                    (first (str/split-lines (readFileSync "README.md" "utf-8")))))
+           "img"))
+      (is (str/includes?
+           (sci/eval-form ctx '(do (require '["fs" :refer [readFileSync] :rename {readFileSync exists?}]
+                                            '[clojure.string :as str])
+                                   (first (str/split-lines (exists? "README.md" "utf-8")))))
            "img"))))
   (testing "rename"
     (let [ctx (sci/init {})]