diff --git a/collect-columns.wdl b/collect-columns.wdl
index 9e18f51e8333fe5beab7bdbf40a1a35244db7364..910aeac255dc07afc22068896d69aa81ef56fed8 100644
--- a/collect-columns.wdl
+++ b/collect-columns.wdl
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ task CollectColumns {
     }
 
     command {
+        set -e
+        mkdir -p $(dirname ~{outputPath})
         collect-columns \
         ~{outputPath} \
         ~{sep=" " inputTables} \