From 42cb6dbed070bd40b7da49ef99dd8daa6cb32d57 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Julian Sommer <115516918+juliansommer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2026 11:12:32 +1000
Subject: [PATCH] fix: add better error message

---
 cmd/spinifex/cmd/admin.go | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/cmd/spinifex/cmd/admin.go b/cmd/spinifex/cmd/admin.go
index a9c959a6f..5ff9b955f 100644
--- a/cmd/spinifex/cmd/admin.go
+++ b/cmd/spinifex/cmd/admin.go
@@ -268,7 +268,8 @@ func runimagesImportCmd(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
 	imageDir := fmt.Sprintf("%s/images", baseDir)
 
 	if !admin.FileExists(imageDir) {
-		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Image directory does not exist. Base path specified correctly? %s", imageDir)
+		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Error: image directory does not exist: %s\n\n", imageDir)
+		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Run 'spx admin init' first to initialize the Spinifex platform.\n")
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}