diff --git a/action.sh b/action.sh
index 384dd62..01abc17 100755
--- a/action.sh
+++ b/action.sh
@@ -6,7 +6,10 @@ SSH_KEY_FILE=/tmp/gitea-pages-ssh-key-$(date +%s)
 echo "${INPUT_SSH_KEY}" >> "${SSH_KEY_FILE}"
 chmod 600 "${SSH_KEY_FILE}"
 
-cat "${SSH_KEY_FILE}"
+if [ ! -s "${SSH_KEY_FILE}" ]; then
+  echo "Missing ssh key, aborting deploy."
+  exit 1
+fi
 
 # set up ssh remote key
 echo "${INPUT_HOST} ${INPUT_HOST_KEY}" >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
@@ -14,6 +17,7 @@ echo "${INPUT_HOST} ${INPUT_HOST_KEY}" >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
 # check if directory present
 if [ ! -d "${INPUT_DIRECTORY}" ]; then
   echo "Directory ${INPUT_DIRECTORY} does not exist, aborting deploy."
+  exit 1
 fi
 
 # optionally: create index