diff --git a/crawler/frontend/start.sh b/crawler/frontend/start.sh
index adfcaf1..079b7ff 100755
--- a/crawler/frontend/start.sh
+++ b/crawler/frontend/start.sh
@@ -17,6 +17,12 @@ set -eux
 # Kill any existing caddy servers
 sudo pkill -f 'caddy'
 
+# Fail if caddy is not installed
+if ! command -v caddy &> /dev/null; then
+  echo "Error: caddy is not installed. Please install caddy and try again"
+   exit 1
+fi
+
 pwd=$PWD
 
 caddy_dir="$pwd/caddy_dev"