diff --git a/lib/build.js b/lib/build.js
index ab9b2571b..4f255db97 100644
--- a/lib/build.js
+++ b/lib/build.js
@@ -97,6 +97,15 @@ export function options () {
 }
 
 export async function build () {
+  // Check if pages dir exists and warn if not
+  if (!fs.existsSync(join(this.srcDir, 'pages'))) {
+    if (fs.existsSync(join(this.srcDir, '..', 'pages'))) {
+      console.error('> No `pages` directory found. Did you mean to run `nuxt` in the parent (`../`) directory?') // eslint-disable-line no-console
+    } else {
+      console.error('> Couldn\'t find a `pages` directory. Please create one under the project root') // eslint-disable-line no-console
+    }
+    process.exit(1)
+  }
   debug(`App root: ${this.srcDir}`)
   debug('Generating .nuxt/ files...')
   // Create .nuxt/, .nuxt/components and .nuxt/dist folders