diff --git a/src/idiap_devtools/scripts/pixi.py b/src/idiap_devtools/scripts/pixi.py
index 184cd4656ace50293519c53fe1c0a80bdebffedc..6229415a96d003cfa8719f08e102255e7ad9dcbf 100644
--- a/src/idiap_devtools/scripts/pixi.py
+++ b/src/idiap_devtools/scripts/pixi.py
@@ -122,6 +122,10 @@ def pixi(
         import tomli
 
         pyproject = tomli.load(pyproject.open("rb"))
+    else:
+        raise click.ClickException(
+            f"Cannot find `pyproject.toml` at directory `{str(project_dir)}`"
+        )
 
     # build output TOML pixi file
     config = {}