diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 9b1c5e8..0848cf6 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -3,3 +3,6 @@
 .lein-failures
 /pom.xml
 .lein-repl-history
+.cache
+.clj-kondo/babashka
+.clj-kondo/rewrite-clj
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7104147..a071a08 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## Unreleased
+
+- [#63](https://github.com/babashka/pods/issues/63): create directory before un-tarring
+
 ## v0.2.0
 
 - [#61](https://github.com/babashka/pods/issues/61): add transit as explicit JVM dependency
diff --git a/src/babashka/pods/impl/resolver.clj b/src/babashka/pods/impl/resolver.clj
index 61a170e..a6662f5 100644
--- a/src/babashka/pods/impl/resolver.clj
+++ b/src/babashka/pods/impl/resolver.clj
@@ -91,7 +91,10 @@
                   ^"[Ljava.nio.file.CopyOption;"
                   (into-array
                    [java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption/REPLACE_EXISTING])))
-    (sh "tar" "xf" (.getPath tmp-file) "--directory" (.getPath destination-dir))
+    (.mkdirs destination-dir)
+    (let [res (sh "tar" "xf" (.getPath tmp-file) "--directory" (.getPath destination-dir))]
+      (when-not (zero? (:exit res))
+        (throw (ex-info (:err res) res))))
     (.delete tmp-file)))
 
 (defn make-executable [dest-dir executables verbose?]
@@ -208,7 +211,7 @@
                               (cond (str/ends-with? filename ".zip")
                                     (unzip {:zip-file cache-file
                                             :destination-dir ddir
-                                            :verbose false})
+                                            :verbose true})
                                     (or (str/ends-with? filename ".tgz")
                                         (str/ends-with? filename ".tar.gz"))
                                     (un-tgz cache-file ddir