diff --git a/scripts/oe-depends-dot b/scripts/oe-depends-dot
index 560d2fd2bb..92e68e74ae 100755
--- a/scripts/oe-depends-dot
+++ b/scripts/oe-depends-dot
@@ -17,7 +17,8 @@ class Dot(object):
             description="Analyse task-depends.dot generated by bitbake -g",
             formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter)
         parser.add_argument("dotfile",
-            help = "Specify the dotfile", action='store', default='')
+            help = "Dotfile to inspect (default: ./task-depends.dot)",
+            nargs='?', action='store', default='./task-depends.dot')
         parser.add_argument("-k", "--key",
             help = "Specify the key, e.g., recipe name",
             action="store", default='')
@@ -49,6 +50,10 @@ Reduce the .dot file packages only, no tasks:
 
         self.args = parser.parse_args()
 
+        if not os.path.exists(self.args.dotfile):
+            print(f"Dotfile {self.args.dotfile} does not exists. Did you run 'bitbake -g <recipe>'?")
+            sys.exit(1)
+
     @staticmethod
     def insert_dep_chain(chain, rdeps, alldeps):
         """