diff --git a/main.py b/main.py
index 57c9b8e..2d2a717 100644
--- a/main.py
+++ b/main.py
@@ -54,6 +54,9 @@
 # Enable compression for all responses
 Compress(app)
 
+# Ensure data directory exists before initializing the database
+os.makedirs("data", exist_ok=True)
+
 # Initialize database on startup
 init_db()
 
diff --git a/start-librecrawl.bat b/start-librecrawl.bat
index bf2621b..9a9e0d6 100644
--- a/start-librecrawl.bat
+++ b/start-librecrawl.bat
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 @echo off
 
+if not exist data mkdir data

 echo Checking for Docker...
 docker --version 2>nul
 if errorlevel 1 goto nodocker
diff --git a/start-librecrawl.sh b/start-librecrawl.sh
index 7c9a979..dbfbac9 100644
--- a/start-librecrawl.sh
+++ b/start-librecrawl.sh
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 # Start LibreCrawl - tries Docker first, falls back to Python
 
+mkdir -p data
 echo "Checking for Docker..."
 if command -v docker &> /dev/null && command -v docker compose &> /dev/null; then
     echo "Docker found! Starting LibreCrawl with Docker..."