diff --git a/poky/scripts/oe-pkgdata-util b/poky/scripts/oe-pkgdata-util
index 93220e3..75dd23e 100755
--- a/poky/scripts/oe-pkgdata-util
+++ b/poky/scripts/oe-pkgdata-util
@@ -598,6 +598,9 @@
             logger.error("Unable to find bitbake by searching parent directory of this script or PATH")
             sys.exit(1)
         logger.debug('Found bitbake path: %s' % bitbakepath)
+        if not os.environ.get('BUILDDIR', ''):
+            logger.error("This script can only be run after initialising the build environment (e.g. by using oe-init-build-env)")
+            sys.exit(1)
         tinfoil = tinfoil_init()
         try:
             args.pkgdata_dir = tinfoil.config_data.getVar('PKGDATA_DIR')