diff --git a/internal/cmd/root.go b/internal/cmd/root.go
index 8c3b0324f9929ac5040b9d5c574f30ae5525653d..7cf3bcddab425cc818b2fe6d884bf770d5aed930 100644
--- a/internal/cmd/root.go
+++ b/internal/cmd/root.go
@@ -105,6 +105,10 @@ crush run -q "Generate a README for this project"
 		}
 		defer app.Shutdown()
 
+		if !app.Config().IsConfigured() {
+			return fmt.Errorf("no providers configured - please run 'crush' to set up a provider interactively")
+		}
+
 		prompt := strings.Join(args, " ")
 
 		prompt, err = maybePrependStdin(prompt)