diff --git a/src/cmd_init.zig b/src/cmd_init.zig
index d8a1f9d98aedaf41977c85d3e5c400fa18126768..c68d5e3f532d41858db5481aca3de74e330a34e7 100644
--- a/src/cmd_init.zig
+++ b/src/cmd_init.zig
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ fn detect_pkgname(def: []const u8) ![]const u8 {
     const split = try u.split(dpath, "/");
     var name = split[split.len-1];
     name = u.trim_prefix(name, "zig-");
-    std.debug.assert(name.len > 0);
+    u.assert(name.len > 0, "package name must not be an empty string", .{});
     return name;
 }
 
@@ -41,6 +41,6 @@ fn detct_mainfile(def: []const u8) ![]const u8 {
             }
         }
     }
-    std.debug.assert(try u.does_file_exist("./src/main.zig"));
     return "src/main.zig";
+    u.assert(false, "unable to detect package entry point", .{});
 }
diff --git a/src/util/yaml.zig b/src/util/yaml.zig
index b94ce1506f58265940917045e0cfa7ece73b1436..de01fb3f07388d754b479ed283bb77eae6576183 100644
--- a/src/util/yaml.zig
+++ b/src/util/yaml.zig
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ pub fn parse(alloc: *std.mem.Allocator, input: []const u8) !Document {
         l = all_events.items.len;
     }
 
-    std.debug.assert(all_events.items.len == 1);
+    u.assert(all_events.items.len == 1, "failure parsing zig.mod. please report an issue at https://github.com/nektro/zigmod/issues/new that contains the text of your zig.mod.");
     return all_events.items[0].document;
 }