diff --git a/bin/excod.cjs b/bin/excod.cjs
index 21e8382..081eebe 100755
--- a/bin/excod.cjs
+++ b/bin/excod.cjs
@@ -1,2 +1,16 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env node
-import('../dist/cli.js');
+import('../dist/cli.js').catch((error) => {
+  const missingBuiltCli =
+    error?.code === 'ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND' &&
+    typeof error?.message === 'string' &&
+    /[\\/]dist[\\/]cli\.js/.test(error.message);
+
+  if (missingBuiltCli) {
+    console.error('Error: dist/cli.js not found. Run `npm run build` first.');
+    console.error(error.message);
+  } else {
+    console.error('Error: CLI startup failed.');
+    console.error(error?.stack ?? error);
+  }
+  process.exit(1);
+});
diff --git a/tests/bin.test.ts b/tests/bin.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dff7ead
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/bin.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import { spawnSync } from 'node:child_process';
+import { copyFileSync, mkdirSync, mkdtempSync, rmSync, writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { tmpdir } from 'node:os';
+import { dirname, join } from 'node:path';
+
+describe('bin/excod.cjs', () => {
+  it('explains how to recover when dist/cli.js is missing', () => {
+    const tempDir = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'excod-bin-missing-dist-'));
+    const tempBin = join(tempDir, 'bin', 'excod.cjs');
+    mkdirSync(dirname(tempBin), { recursive: true });
+    copyFileSync('bin/excod.cjs', tempBin);
+
+    try {
+      const result = spawnSync(process.execPath, [tempBin], {
+        cwd: tempDir,
+        encoding: 'utf8',
+      });
+
+      expect(result.status).toBe(1);
+      expect(result.stderr).toContain('Run `npm run build` first');
+      expect(result.stderr).toContain('dist/cli.js');
+    } finally {
+      rmSync(tempDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
+
+  it('does not report missing dist for CLI runtime failures', () => {
+    const tempDir = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'excod-bin-runtime-error-'));
+    const tempBin = join(tempDir, 'bin', 'excod.cjs');
+    const tempCli = join(tempDir, 'dist', 'cli.js');
+    mkdirSync(dirname(tempBin), { recursive: true });
+    mkdirSync(dirname(tempCli), { recursive: true });
+    copyFileSync('bin/excod.cjs', tempBin);
+    writeFileSync(tempCli, "throw new Error('boom from cli');\n", 'utf8');
+
+    try {
+      const result = spawnSync(process.execPath, [tempBin], {
+        cwd: tempDir,
+        encoding: 'utf8',
+      });
+
+      expect(result.status).toBe(1);
+      expect(result.stderr).toContain('CLI startup failed');
+      expect(result.stderr).toContain('boom from cli');
+      expect(result.stderr).not.toContain('Run `npm run build` first');
+    } finally {
+      rmSync(tempDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
+});