diff --git a/src/caosadvancedtools/crawler.py b/src/caosadvancedtools/crawler.py
index 5e84bc8a60c1b358150c4db389efb62656af0631..724004479e1e909057764f74e7d459a9aac72dc1 100644
--- a/src/caosadvancedtools/crawler.py
+++ b/src/caosadvancedtools/crawler.py
@@ -589,6 +589,9 @@ ____________________\n""".format(i+1, len(pending_changes)) + str(el[3]))
 
         if "SHARED_DIR" in os.environ:
             directory = os.environ["SHARED_DIR"]
+        else:
+            directory = "."
+            logger.info("No 'SHARED_DIR' in environment, using '.' as fallback.")
         filename = str(run_id)+".html"
         randname = os.path.basename(os.path.abspath(directory))
         filepath = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(directory, filename))
diff --git a/src/caosadvancedtools/models/parser.py b/src/caosadvancedtools/models/parser.py
index f9bea92455e948eb40e337a43ad87b6d79156fce..175f2f7fbfc5408e70e37740d7ae0506d547c628 100644
--- a/src/caosadvancedtools/models/parser.py
+++ b/src/caosadvancedtools/models/parser.py
@@ -1015,7 +1015,7 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     elif args.data_model.endswith(".yml") or args.data_model.endswith(".yaml"):
         model = parse_model_from_yaml(args.data_model)
     else:
-        RuntimeError("did not recognize file ending")
+        raise RuntimeError(f"Unknown file ending of data model: {args.data_model}")
     if args.print:
         print(model)
     if args.sync: